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Association of vaccine hesitancy and immunization coverage rates in the European Union

Association of vaccine hesitancy and immunization coverage rates in the European Union
Association of vaccine hesitancy and immunization coverage rates in the European Union
While previous studies have validated vaccine hesitancy scales with uptake behavior at the individual level, the conditions under which aggregated survey data are useful are less clear. We show that vaccine public opinion data aggregated at the subnational level can serve as a valid indicator of aggregate vaccine behaviour. We use a public opinion survey (Eurobarometer EB 91.2) with data on vaccine hesitancy for the EU in 2019. We link this information to (subnational) regional immunization coverage rates for childhood vaccines – DTP3, MCV1, and MCV2 -- obtained from the WHO for 2019. We conduct multilevel regression analyses with data for 177 regions in 20 countries. Given the variation in vaccine hesitancy and immunization rates between countries and within countries, we affirm the valuable role that surveys can play as a public health surveillance tool when it comes to vaccine behavior. We find statistically significantly lower regional vaccine immunization rates in regions where vaccine hesitancy is more pronounced. Our results suggest that different uptake rates across subnational regions are due, at least in part, to differences in attitudes towards vaccines and vaccination. The results are robust to several alternative specifications.
0264-410X
3935-3939
Stoeckel, Florian
ca82e601-5b0f-4f51-9b2d-46a1693e1f25
Carter, Charlie
9c3327d1-e005-434e-8877-2f0b40e02f8f
Lyons, Benjamin A.
4c85428f-bd28-4aa1-b53b-282c9918fea6
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491
Stoeckel, Florian
ca82e601-5b0f-4f51-9b2d-46a1693e1f25
Carter, Charlie
9c3327d1-e005-434e-8877-2f0b40e02f8f
Lyons, Benjamin A.
4c85428f-bd28-4aa1-b53b-282c9918fea6
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491

Stoeckel, Florian, Carter, Charlie, Lyons, Benjamin A. and Reifler, Jason (2021) Association of vaccine hesitancy and immunization coverage rates in the European Union. Vaccine, 39 (29), 3935-3939. (doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.05.062).

Record type: Article

Abstract

While previous studies have validated vaccine hesitancy scales with uptake behavior at the individual level, the conditions under which aggregated survey data are useful are less clear. We show that vaccine public opinion data aggregated at the subnational level can serve as a valid indicator of aggregate vaccine behaviour. We use a public opinion survey (Eurobarometer EB 91.2) with data on vaccine hesitancy for the EU in 2019. We link this information to (subnational) regional immunization coverage rates for childhood vaccines – DTP3, MCV1, and MCV2 -- obtained from the WHO for 2019. We conduct multilevel regression analyses with data for 177 regions in 20 countries. Given the variation in vaccine hesitancy and immunization rates between countries and within countries, we affirm the valuable role that surveys can play as a public health surveillance tool when it comes to vaccine behavior. We find statistically significantly lower regional vaccine immunization rates in regions where vaccine hesitancy is more pronounced. Our results suggest that different uptake rates across subnational regions are due, at least in part, to differences in attitudes towards vaccines and vaccination. The results are robust to several alternative specifications.

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Published date: 29 June 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 500598
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500598
ISSN: 0264-410X
PURE UUID: a3077a2c-76d6-41e7-9cec-d26a089d5d48
ORCID for Jason Reifler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1116-7346

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Date deposited: 06 May 2025 17:00
Last modified: 24 Jun 2025 02:15

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Contributors

Author: Florian Stoeckel
Author: Charlie Carter
Author: Benjamin A. Lyons
Author: Jason Reifler ORCID iD

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