Exploring the Association between Misinformation Endorsement, Opinions on the Government Response, Risk Perception, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the US, Canada, and Italy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Data Collection
2.2. Dependent Variable
2.3. Independent Variables
2.4. Statistical Analyses
3. Results
3.1. Sample Characteristics
3.2. COVID-19 Risk Perception
3.3. Perception of Government Response and Request for Government Aid
3.4. Misinformation Endorsement
3.5. Multivariable Analysis
3.6. Multivariable Analysis by Country
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | United States (n = 726) | Canada (n = 985) | Italy (n = 986) | Total (n = 2697) | Country χ2 p-Value | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy | |||||||||
Non-Hesitant | 268 | 37% | 572 | 58% | 560 | 57% | 1400 | 52% | <0.001 |
Hesitant | 458 | 63% | 413 | 42% | 426 | 43% | 1297 | 48% | |
Age Category (balanced by design) | |||||||||
18–24 | 141 | 19% | 198 | 20% | 194 | 20% | 533 | 20% | N/A b |
25–34 | 147 | 20% | 193 | 20% | 196 | 20% | 536 | 20% | |
35–44 | 143 | 20% | 196 | 20% | 198 | 20% | 537 | 20% | |
45–54 | 149 | 21% | 199 | 20% | 198 | 20% | 546 | 20% | |
Over 54 | 146 | 20% | 199 | 20% | 200 | 20% | 545 | 20% | |
Sex (balanced by design) | |||||||||
Male | 364 | 50% | 491 | 50% | 489 | 50% | 1344 | 50% | N/A b |
Female | 362 | 50% | 494 | 50% | 497 | 50% | 1353 | 50% | |
Race a | |||||||||
White, Non-Hispanic | 463 | 64% | 677 | 69% | - | - | 1140 | 67% | <0.001 |
Black, Non-Hispanic | 63 | 9% | 52 | 5% | - | - | 115 | 7% | |
Asian | 45 | 6% | 128 | 13% | - | - | 173 | 10% | |
Hispanic | 62 | 9% | 14 | 1% | - | - | 76 | 4% | |
Two or more/Other/Prefer not to say | 93 | 13% | 114 | 12% | - | - | 207 | 12% | |
Education Category | |||||||||
Less than high school | 49 | 7% | 49 | 5% | 83 | 8% | 181 | 7% | <0.001 |
High school or equivalent | 162 | 22% | 238 | 24% | 440 | 45% | 840 | 31% | |
Some college | 140 | 19% | 276 | 28% | 133 | 13% | 549 | 20% | |
Bachelor’s degree | 132 | 18% | 296 | 30% | 277 | 28% | 705 | 26% | |
Post-graduate degree | 221 | 30% | 118 | 12% | 51 | 5% | 390 | 14% | |
Other | 22 | 3% | 8 | 1% | 2 | 0% | 32 | 1% | |
Employment status | |||||||||
Not employed (includes students and retired individuals) | 290 | 40% | 370 | 38% | 353 | 36% | 1013 | 38% | 0.216 |
Employed | 436 | 60% | 615 | 62% | 633 | 64% | 1684 | 62% | |
COVID-19 Risk Perception | |||||||||
Low COVID-19 Risk Perception (<25th percentile) | 178 | 25% | 215 | 22% | 94 | 10% | 487 | 18% | <0.001 |
Medium COVID-19 Risk Perception (≥25th percentile; <75th percentile) | 294 | 40% | 508 | 52% | 548 | 56% | 1350 | 50% | |
High COVID-19 Risk Perception (≤75th percentile) | 254 | 35% | 262 | 27% | 344 | 35% | 860 | 32% | |
Perception of government response measures | |||||||||
Government measures just right | 239 | 33% | 469 | 48% | 469 | 48% | 1177 | 44% | <0.001 |
Government measures not right | 487 | 67% | 516 | 52% | 517 | 52% | 1520 | 56% | |
Request for government aid | |||||||||
No requests for government aid rejected or requested | 482 | 66% | 858 | 87% | 877 | 89% | 2217 | 82% | <0.001 |
At least one request rejected | 244 | 34% | 127 | 13% | 109 | 11% | 480 | 18% | |
Perception of government transparency | |||||||||
Government has been transparent | 441 | 61% | 653 | 66% | 743 | 75% | 1837 | 68% | <0.001 |
Government has not been transparent | 285 | 39% | 332 | 34% | 243 | 25% | 860 | 32% | |
Misinformation Endorsement Scale Quartile | |||||||||
Low Misinformation Endorsement (<25th percentile) | 155 | 21% | 283 | 29% | 226 | 23% | 664 | 25% | <0.001 |
Medium-Low (≥25th percentile; <50th percentile) | 116 | 16% | 233 | 24% | 308 | 31% | 657 | 24% | |
Medium-High (≥50th percentile; <75th percentile) | 198 | 27% | 242 | 25% | 251 | 25% | 691 | 26% | |
High Misinformation Endorsement (≥75th percentile) | 257 | 35% | 227 | 23% | 201 | 20% | 685 | 25% |
Model 1—Socio-Demographics & Risk Perception | Model 2—Model 1 + Government Perceptions | Model 3—Model 2 + Misinformation Endorsement | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | 2697 | N | 2697 | N | 2697 | |||||||
Pseudo R2 | 0.0929 | Pseudo R2 | 0.162 | Pseudo R2 | 0.268 | |||||||
VARIABLES | OR | SE | 95% CI | Wald Test p-value | OR | SE | 95% CI | Wald Test p-value | OR | SE | 95% CI | Wald Test p-value |
Age group | <0.001 | 0.004 | 0.018 | |||||||||
18–24 | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
25–34 | 0.88 | 0.12 | (0.68–1.13) | 0.94 | 0.13 | (0.71–1.23) | 0.9 | 0.14 | (0.67–1.21) | |||
35–44 | 0.84 | 0.11 | (0.64–1.09) | 0.92 | 0.13 | (0.7–1.21) | 0.8 | 0.12 | (0.6–1.08) | |||
45–54 | 0.79 | 0.11 | (0.61–1.03) | 0.97 | 0.14 | (0.74–1.28) | 0.88 | 0.13 | (0.65–1.18) | |||
55+ | 0.48 ** | 0.06 | (0.37–0.63) | 0.62 ** | 0.09 | (0.47–0.81) | 0.61 ** | 0.09 | (0.45–0.82) | |||
Sex | 0.020 | 0.122 | 0.544 | |||||||||
Male | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Female | 1.22 * | 0.1 | (1.03–1.44) | 1.15 | 0.1 | (0.96–1.37) | 1.06 | 0.1 | (0.88–1.28) | |||
Educational attainment | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.027 | |||||||||
Less than high school | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
High school or equivalent | 0.96 | 0.17 | (0.68–1.35) | 1.04 | 0.19 | (0.72–1.49) | 1.22 | 0.24 | (0.83–1.78) | |||
Some college | 0.7 | 0.13 | (0.49–1) | 0.82 | 0.16 | (0.56–1.2) | 1.13 | 0.24 | (0.76–1.7) | |||
Bachelor’s degree | 0.67 * | 0.12 | (0.47–0.95) | 0.79 | 0.15 | (0.54–1.14) | 1.15 | 0.23 | (0.78–1.71) | |||
Post-Bachelor’s degree | 0.34 ** | 0.07 | (0.23–0.5) | 0.40 ** | 0.09 | (0.26–0.61) | 0.73 | 0.17 | (0.47–1.14) | |||
Other | 2.41 | 1.28 | (0.85–6.82) | 2.14 | 1.16 | (0.74–6.22) | 2.42 | 1.37 | (0.8–7.33) | |||
Employment status | 0.410 | 0.632 | 0.744 | |||||||||
Not employed (includes students and retired) | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Employed | 0.93 | 0.09 | (0.77–1.11) | 0.95 | 0.09 | (0.79–1.16) | 0.97 | 0.1 | (0.79–1.19) | |||
Country of residence and language | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||||||||
Residents in US | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Residents in Canada-English speaking | 0.35 ** | 0.05 | (0.27–0.45) | 0.38 ** | 0.05 | (0.29–0.49) | 0.41 ** | 0.06 | (0.31–0.55) | |||
Residents in Canada-French speaking | 0.31 ** | 0.04 | (0.24–0.4) | 0.43 ** | 0.06 | (0.33–0.57) | 0.48 ** | 0.07 | (0.35–0.65) | |||
Residents in Italy | 0.36 ** | 0.04 | (0.29–0.45) | 0.47 ** | 0.06 | (0.37–0.6) | 0.52 ** | 0.07 | (0.4–0.67) | |||
COVID-19 risk perception | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||||||||
Low COVID-19 risk perception (<25th percentile) | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Medium COVID-19 risk perception (≥25th percentile; <75th percentile) | 0.44 ** | 0.05 | (0.35–0.56) | 0.59 ** | 0.08 | (0.46–0.76) | 0.66 ** | 0.09 | (0.5–0.87) | |||
High COVID-19 risk perception (≤75th percentile) | 0.25 ** | 0.03 | (0.19–0.32) | 0.35 ** | 0.05 | (0.26–0.46) | 0.37 ** | 0.06 | (0.27–0.5) | |||
Perception of government measures to respond to the pandemic | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||||||||
Government measures just right | ref | ref | ||||||||||
Government measures have not been right | 3.04 ** | 0.28 | (2.54–3.64) | 2.44 ** | 0.24 | (2.01–2.96) | ||||||
Request for government aid | 0.001 | 0.076 | ||||||||||
No requests rejected or applied for | ref | ref | ||||||||||
At least one request was rejected | 1.51 ** | 0.19 | (1.19–1.93) | 1.27 | 0.17 | (0.98–1.64) | ||||||
Perception of government transparency | <0.001 | 0.005 | ||||||||||
Government has been transparent | ref | ref | ||||||||||
Government has not been transparent | 1.88 ** | 0.19 | (1.55–2.28) | 1.35 ** | 0.15 | (1.09–1.67) | ||||||
Misinformation endorsement | <0.001 | |||||||||||
Low misinformation endorsement (<25th percentile) | ref | |||||||||||
Medium-Low (≥25th percentile; <50th percentile) | 3.76 ** | 0.57 | (2.79–5.05) | |||||||||
Medium-High (≥50th percentile; <75th percentile) | 9.82 ** | 1.49 | (7.3–13.23) | |||||||||
High misinformation endorsement (≥75th percentile) | 13.68 ** | 2.18 | (10.01–18.7) |
United States | Canada | Italy | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N | 726 | N | 985 | N | 984 | |||||||
Pseudo R2 | 0.398 | Pseudo R2 | 0.326 | Pseudo R2 | 0.167 | |||||||
VARIABLES | OR | SE | 95% CI | Wald Test p-value | OR | SE | 95% CI | Wald Test p-value | OR | SE | 95% CI | Wald Test p-value |
Age group | 0.008 | <0.001 | 0.182 | |||||||||
18–24 | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
25–34 | 0.66 | 0.23 | (0.33–1.32) | 1.08 | 0.28 | (0.65–1.78) | 0.97 | 0.23 | (0.6–1.55) | |||
35–44 | 0.30 ** | 0.11 | (0.15–0.61) | 1.11 | 0.29 | (0.67–1.85) | 1.21 | 0.29 | (0.76–1.94) | |||
45–54 | 0.76 | 0.27 | (0.38–1.51) | 0.74 | 0.2 | (0.43–1.26) | 1.31 | 0.32 | (0.81–2.12) | |||
55+ | 0.96 | 0.36 | (0.46–2) | 0.31 ** | 0.09 | (0.17–0.56) | 0.77 | 0.19 | (0.48–1.25) | |||
Sex | 0.253 | 0.687 | 0.313 | |||||||||
Male | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Female | 1.3 | 0.3 | (0.83–2.05) | 0.93 | 0.16 | (0.67–1.3) | 0.85 | 0.13 | (0.63–1.16) | |||
Race | 0.198 | 0.016 | ||||||||||
White, Non-Hispanic | ref | ref | ||||||||||
Black, Non-Hispanic | 2.06 | 0.79 | (0.97–4.37) | 1.31 | 0.47 | (0.65–2.65) | ||||||
Asian | 1.81 | 0.85 | (0.73–4.53) | 0.48 ** | 0.13 | (0.29–0.81) | a | |||||
Hispanic | 1.88 | 0.72 | (0.88–4) | 0.97 | 0.64 | (0.26–3.56) | ||||||
Two or more/Other/Prefer not to say | 1.62 | 0.57 | (0.81–3.23) | 1.36 | 0.37 | (0.8–2.32) | ||||||
Educational attainment | 0.100 | 0.954 | 0.866 | |||||||||
Less than high school | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
High school or equivalent | 2.81 * | 1.25 | (1.18–6.71) | 0.97 | 0.39 | (0.44–2.14) | 1.12 | 0.3 | (0.66–1.9) | |||
Some college | 1.95 | 0.87 | (0.82–4.66) | 1.03 | 0.41 | (0.47–2.26) | 0.98 | 0.32 | (0.52–1.85) | |||
Bachelor’s degree | 1.88 | 0.84 | (0.79–4.51) | 1.04 | 0.42 | (0.47–2.28) | 1.11 | 0.32 | (0.63–1.96) | |||
Post-Bachelor’s degree | 1.16 | 0.53 | (0.48–2.82) | 0.86 | 0.38 | (0.36–2.02) | 1.47 | 0.6 | (0.66–3.28) | |||
Other | 2.23 | 1.6 | (0.55–9.11) | 2.35 | 2.74 | (0.24–23.21) | b | |||||
Employment status | 0.686 | 0.596 | 0.896 | |||||||||
Not employed (includes students and retired) | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Employed | 1.11 | 0.28 | (0.67–1.82) | 0.9 | 0.17 | (0.62–1.31) | 0.98 | 0.16 | (0.71–1.35) | |||
COVID-19 risk perception | <0.001 | 0.040 | 0.014 | |||||||||
Low COVID-19 risk perception (<25th percentile) | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Medium COVID-19 risk perception (≥25th percentile; <75th percentile) | 0.47 * | 0.15 | (0.24–0.89) | 0.74 | 0.16 | (0.48–1.14) | 0.79 | 0.21 | (0.47–1.33) | |||
High COVID-19 risk perception (≤75th percentile) | 0.17 ** | 0.06 | (0.09–0.34) | 0.53 * | 0.13 | (0.32–0.87) | 0.53 * | 0.15 | (0.3–0.91) | |||
Perception of government measures to respond to the pandemic | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||||||||
Government measures just right | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Government measures have not been right | 2.22 ** | 0.51 | (1.42–3.47) | 3.05 ** | 0.54 | (2.16–4.31) | 2.28 ** | 0.35 | (1.68–3.08) | |||
Request for government aid | 0.155 | 0.074 | 0.019 | |||||||||
No requests rejected or applied for | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
At least one request was rejected | 0.71 | 0.17 | (0.44–1.14) | 1.61 | 0.43 | (0.95–2.72) | 1.73 * | 0.4 | (1.1–2.73) | |||
Perception of government transparency | 0.243 | 0.146 | 0.480 | |||||||||
Government has been transparent | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Government has not been transparent | 1.34 | 0.33 | (0.82–2.17) | 1.3 | 0.24 | (0.91–1.86) | 1.13 | 0.2 | (0.8–1.6) | |||
Misinformation endorsement | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | |||||||||
Low misinformation endorsement (<25th percentile) | ref | ref | ref | |||||||||
Medium-Low (≥25th percentile; <50th percentile) | 2.21 * | 0.76 | (1.13–4.33) | 5.08 ** | 1.45 | (2.91–8.88) | 3.16 ** | 0.73 | (2.01–4.98) | |||
Medium-High (≥50th percentile; <75th percentile) | 6.23 ** | 2.1 | (3.22–12.07) | 14.98 ** | 4.25 | (8.59–26.12) | 6.02 ** | 1.44 | (3.77–9.63) | |||
High misinformation endorsement (≥75th percentile) | 7.42 ** | 2.49 | (3.85–14.32) | 22.01 ** | 6.53 | (12.31–39.38) | 10.20 ** | 2.64 | (6.14–16.95) |
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Savoia, E.; Harriman, N.W.; Piltch-Loeb, R.; Bonetti, M.; Toffolutti, V.; Testa, M.A. Exploring the Association between Misinformation Endorsement, Opinions on the Government Response, Risk Perception, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the US, Canada, and Italy. Vaccines 2022, 10, 671. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050671
Savoia E, Harriman NW, Piltch-Loeb R, Bonetti M, Toffolutti V, Testa MA. Exploring the Association between Misinformation Endorsement, Opinions on the Government Response, Risk Perception, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the US, Canada, and Italy. Vaccines. 2022; 10(5):671. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050671
Chicago/Turabian StyleSavoia, Elena, Nigel Walsh Harriman, Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Marco Bonetti, Veronica Toffolutti, and Marcia A. Testa. 2022. "Exploring the Association between Misinformation Endorsement, Opinions on the Government Response, Risk Perception, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the US, Canada, and Italy" Vaccines 10, no. 5: 671. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050671