The Youth Attitudes about Vaccines (YAV-5) scale: adapting the parent attitudes about childhood vaccines short scale for use with youth in German, French, and Italian in Switzerland, exploratory factor analysis and mokken scaling analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of study participants (N = 1,003)

Characteristics	German (n = 675)	French (n = 170)	Italian (n = 158)	Total (N = 1,003)	P Value
	N (%)
Age in years
≤18	261 (38.7)	51 (30.0)	102 (64.6)	414 (41.3)
Mean age (SD), years	19.3 ± 2.8	20.6 ± 3.5	17.9 ± 2.4		<0.01, DF: 2
Sex
Female	223 (33.0)	121 (71.2)	72 (45.6)	416 (41.5)	<0.01
Household Type
Living with parents	568 (84.2)	112 (65.9)	146 (92.4)	827 (82.4)	<0.01
Nationality
Swiss	641 (94.9)	139 (81.8)	142 (89.9)	922 (91.9)	<0.01
Provider office type where the youth were recruited
Medical provider	335 (49.6)	170 (100.0)	123 (77.8)	628 (62.6)	<0.01
Military	340 (50.3)	0	35 (22.2)	375 (37.3)
YAV-5 score*
<5	475 (70.4)	108 (63.5)	130 (82.3)	713 (63.2)
Mean YAV-5 score (SD)	3.38 ± 2.45	3.73 ± 2.48	2.93 ± 1.85		0.02 DF: 2
Vaccine uptake (Boys and Girls)	512 (75.8)	56 (32.9)	138 (87.3)	706 (70.4)	0.07

All data shown are number (%) of participating youths, unless stated otherwise. ANOVA p values and degrees of freedom given for comparison of continuous variables while Chi-square p values are given for comparison of categorical variables across the languages.

SD: Standard deviation.

*Percentages may not add up to 100% due to missing responses and/or rounding. SD: Standard deviation.

Table 2. Participants responses and descriptive statistics of YAV items (N = 1,003)

Items highlighted blue indicate the items included in the short YAV version (YAV-5). All values shown indicate numbers (%) unless stated otherwise. Chi-square p value given for comparison of participant’s responses to YAV-5 items across the languages.

*Percentages may not be complete due to missing values.

^aAgree shows combined responses of strongly agree and agree; disagree shows combined responses of strongly disagree and disagree.

^bHesitant shows combined responses of very and somewhat hesitant; not hesitant shows combined responses of not at all and not too hesitant.

^cConcerned shows combined responses of very and somewhat concerned; not concerned shows combined responses of not concerned at all and not too concerned.

^dResponse category on a 0–10 scale, with 0 being ‘do not trust at all’ and 10 being ‘completely trust.’

Table 3. YAV-5 Exploratory factor analysis loadings, reliability estimates, and Loevinger’s H coefficients of Mokken scale for HPV (N = 1,003)

		EFA				MSA
YAV-5 items		German	French	Italian		German	French	Italian
				Factor 1	Factor 2
1	I believe that many of the illnesses that vaccines prevent are severe	0.7	0.6	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.4
2	It is better to develop immunity by getting sick than to get a vaccine.	0.7	0.7	0.5	-	0.5	0.3	0.3
3	It is better to get fewer vaccines at the same time	0.5	0.7	0.4	0.8	0.4	0.4	0.6
4	Overall, how hesitant about vaccines would you consider yourself to be?	0.8	0.7	0.6	-	0.5	0.3	0.4
5	I trust the information I receive about vaccines.	0.6	0.5	0.8	-	0.4	0.4	0.6
		-	-	-	-	0.44	0.40	0.39
Reliability estimates		0.66	0.61	0.38	0.35

Only EFA factor loadings and Loevinger’s H coefficients of Mokken scale >0.3 were considered.

Table 4. Unadjusted odds of non-uptake of HPV vaccine for hesitant vs. non-hesitant youth by language and gender, bivariate logistic regression models

	N	OR	95% CI
Full sample	706	1.93	(1.31-	2.85)
German-language sample	512	2.05	(1.26-	3.36)
French-language sample	56	1.45	(0.48-	4.43)
Italian-language sample	138	1.61	(0.66-	3.93)
Female youth only
Full sample	277	3.97	(2.32-	6.78)
German-language sample	180	3.76	(1.96-	7.21)
French-language sample	38	4.37	(1.07-	17.79)
Italian-language sample	59	3.17	(0.80-	12.54)
Male youth only
Full sample	429	1.79	(0.88-	3.66)
German-language sample	332	3.6	(1.07-	12.11)
French-language sample	18	0.12	(0.01-	1.26)
Italian-language sample	79	1.2	(0.33-	4.34)

Hesitant defined as YAV-5 score ≥ 5.