Quantifying COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy during early vaccination rollout in Canada

  1. Xuyang Tang
  2. Hellen Gelband
  3. Nico Nagelkerke
  4. Isaac I. Bogoch
  5. Patrick Brown
  6. Ed Morawski
  7. Theresa Tam
  8. Angus Reid
  9. Prabhat Jha
  10. for the Action to beat coronavirus/Action pour battre le coronavirus (Ab-C) Study Investigators
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Abstract

Background

Understanding vaccination hesitancy during early vaccination rollout in Canada can help the government’s vaccination efforts in education and outreach, which may help eventually achieving herd immunity. This study uses an online survey to assess vaccination hesitancy in population subgroups in Canada.

Method

Panel members from the nationally representative Angus Reid Forum were randomly invited to complete an online survey on their experiencing with COVID-19 symptoms and testing, as well as intention to vaccination against COVID-19. Respondents were asked “when a vaccine against the coronavirus becomes available to you, will you get vaccinated or not?” Vaccination hesitancy was defined as choosing “No – I will not get a coronavirus vaccination” as a response.

Results

14,621 panel members (46% male and 53% female) completed the survey. Although the respondents overrepresent age 60+ and higher levels of education, other demographics, the prevalences of smoking, obesity, diabetes and hypertension were comparable to the Canadian national census and health surveys. COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy is relatively low overall (9%). Being a resident of Alberta (predicted probability = 15%), aged 40-59 (OR = 0.87, 0.78 – 0.97, predicted probability = 12%), identifying as a visible minority (OR = 0.56, 0.37 – 0.84, predicted probability = 15%), having some college level education or lower (predicted probability = 14%), or living in households of at least 5 are related to greater vaccination hesitancy (OR = 0.82, 0.76 – 0.88, predicted probability = 13%).

Conclusion

Our study enhances the understanding of COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy and identifies key population groups with higher vaccination hesitancy. As the Canadian COVID-19 vaccination effort continues, policymakers may focus outreach, education, and other efforts on these groups, which also represent groups with higher risks for contracting and dying from COVID-19. Furthermore, Canada would need to vaccinate virtually the entire population to reach herd immunity due to its relatively low infection level, and a high vaccination hesitancy would be a major hurdle to achieving that.

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