Results of Validating the Proprietary Method of Establishing Personal Levels of Vaccination Adherence

Abstract

Introduction: Vaccination is the most efficient and cost-effective way to prevent infectious diseases. In recent years, despite the proven positive role of vaccination, there has been an ambiguous attitude towards ongoing vaccination campaigns in the world. Objective: To test and validate the proprietary method of establishing personal levels of vaccination adherence. Materials and methods: The authors have elaborated a method of assessing vaccination adherence using a specially developed questionnaire consisting of four groups (scales) and including 36 both direct and indirect statements related to immunization and serving as indicators. In April–June 2023, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey of 300 people aged 19 to 75 years. The respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with the statements using the Likert scale. Each indicator was a value calculated for a particular respondent, expressed in points. The scoring was done manually or automatically. The data were then analyzed in SPSS Statistics 23.0 using methods of correlation analysis and descriptive statistics. Results: The vaccination adherence level was moderate in 179 (59.7 %), low in 9 (3.0 %), and high in 112 (37.3 %) respondents. The Spearman’s rank correlation analysis revealed statistically significant correlations between the responses and the actual level of commitment to vaccination. Our method has demonstrated compliance with standard requirements for internal consistency, factor validity of scales, and statistical significance of test parts (Cronbach’s α-coefficient = 0.830; the factor analysis allowed us to distinguish four components). Conclusion: Testing and subsequent validation of the own method have made it possible to determine the level of vaccination adherence as moderate as the questionnaire scales correspond to significant factors influencing the choice of a behavioral strategy. This method can be recommended both for research purposes and for practical application in healthcare institutions.