Explicit and Intrinsic Intention to Receive COVID-19 Vaccination among Heterosexuals and Sexual Minorities in Taiwan.

Yen-Ju Lin,Yu-Ping Chang,Wen-Jiun Chou,Cheng-Fang Yen

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147260

Abstract

The present study compared the levels of explicit and intrinsic intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination among sexual minority and heterosexual individuals and examined the association of explicit and intrinsic intentions with sexual orientation. We enrolled 171 sexual minority and 876 heterosexual individuals through a Facebook advertisement. The participants’ explicit and intrinsic intentions to receive COVID-19 vaccination and their risk perception of COVID-19 were measured. We discovered that sexual minority individuals had higher levels of explicit and intrinsic intention to receive vaccination relative to heterosexual individuals. Intrinsic intention was positively associated with explicit intention after the effects of demographic characteristics and risk perception of COVID-19 were controlled for. Sexual orientation did not moderate the association between explicit and intrinsic intentions. The present study determined the relationship between sexual orientation and intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination.

Highlights

The post hoc comparison indicated that the sexual minority participants had higher levels of explicit and intrinsic intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination compared with the heterosexual participants
The results revealed that the interactions between sexual orientation and risk perception and between sexual orientation and intrinsic intention were not significantly associated with explicit intention, indicating that sexual orientation did not moderate the association of risk perception and intrinsic intentions with explicit intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination
The present study found that sexual minority individuals had higher levels of explicit and intrinsic intention to receive COVID-19 vaccination relative to heterosexual individuals

Summary

Introduction

Having access to abundant economic, health care, and social support resources can help an individual to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic [9,10,11]. Sexual minority individuals encounter more physiological risks (e.g., human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases; diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and substance abuse), mental health problems (e.g., depression and anxiety), financial and economic crisis (e.g., unemployment and salary cuts and sexual stigma and inequality (e.g., hate speech)), and poor social support (e.g., reduced support due to lockdown and social distancing) when they face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic [17,21,22,23]. For more effective intervention, it is necessary to further examine the health needs of sexual minority individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion