Association between friends’ hesitancy and personal COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Chinese medical staff

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy remains problematic among healthcare workers. Social network influences may shape vaccine decision-making, but few studies have examined this in this critical workforce. We assessed the relationship between friends’ COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and personal hesitancy among Chinese healthcare personnel. In December 2022–January 2023, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted at a tertiary hospital in China using WeChat. Of the 1832 healthcare personnel who were invited to answer the structured questionnaire, 613 (33.5%) samples had valid data for data analysis. Logistic regression examined the association between friends’ hesitancy and participants’ own hesitancy, adjusting for confounders. Of 613 healthcare workers included, 266 (43.4%) were hesitant. Those with hesitant friends had 6.34 times higher adjusted odds of hesitating themselves versus those without hesitant friends (95% CI 2.97–13.52). Strong associations persisted across subgroups. Chinese healthcare workers’ COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy was highly influenced by perceived friends’ attitudes. Fostering pro-vaccine social norms through trusted peer networks could help promote vaccine acceptance in this critical workforce.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• vaccine hesitancy
• medical staff
• social networks
• China

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the medical staff who participated in the survey. We acknowledge the support provided by the Taizhou First People’s Hospital for facilitating data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

L.L.H. and W.W.H. conceived and designed the study. L.L.H. and W.W.H. collected the data. L.L.H., W.W.H., W.W.H., and Y.H.J. analyzed and interpreted the data. L.L.H. drafted the manuscript. W.W.H., W.W.H., and Y.H.J. critically revised the manuscript. All authors gave final approval and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Ethics approval and consent

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Taizhou First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang Province, China [approval 2023-KY079-01]. And performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki principles. Participants were informed of the study objectives, confidentiality, anonymity, voluntary participation, and consented prior to participation.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2024.2344290

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.