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ABSTRACT
Vaccination has become the primary means for citizens to prevent severe morbidity and mortality during the pandemic. However, vaccine hesitancy poses a major threat to global public health security. Based on the data from Chinese General Social Survey in 2021, this study aims to explore the socio-political aspects of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, focusing on the relationship between COVID-19 risk perceptions, institutional trust and vaccine hesitancy. Among the samples, 39.8% of the respondents exhibited COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, 48.9% had a high awareness of the risk of COVID-19, and 74.6% presented a high level of trust in institutions. The results showed that higher risk perception and institutional trust are negatively correlated with vaccine hesitancy (p < .001). Institutional trust had no statistically significant moderating effect on the association between risk perception and vaccine hesitancy, but the role of institutional trust in influencing vaccine hesitancy is more significant at a lower level of perceptions of COVID-19 risk. Furthermore, regional variations in the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy were demonstrated in China. These findings have important implications for developing strategies to address vaccine hesitancy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Author contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization: [Guiwu Chen]. Methodology: [Guiwu Chen] [Yiyun Yao]. Assessment: [YaoWen Zhang]. Formal analysis and investigation: [Yiyun Yao]. Writing-original draft preparation: [Fei Zhao]. Writing-review and editing: [Fei Zhao], [Guiwu Chen]. Funding acquisition: [Guiwu Chen]. Supervision: [Fei Zhao].