COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Social Media Users: A Content Analysis, Multi-Continent Study

Ramy Shaaban, Ramy Mohamed Ghazy, Fawzia Elsherif, Nancy Ali, Youssef Yakoub, Maged Aly, Rony Elmakhzangy, Marwa Shawky Abdou, Bonny McKinna, Amira Mohamed Elzorkany, Fatimah Abdullah, Amr Alnagar, Nashwa Eltaweel, Majed Alharthi, Ali Mohsin, Ana Ordóñez-Cruickshank, Bianca Toniolo, Tâmela Grafolin, Thit Thit Aye, Yong Zhin GohEhsan Akram Deghidy, Siti Bahri, Jarntrah Sappayabanphot, Yasir Ahmed Mohammed Elhadi, Salma Mohammed, Ahmed Nour El-Deen, Ismail Ismail, Samar Abd Elhafeez, Iffat Elbarazi, Basema Saddik, Ziad El-Khatib, Hiba Mohsin, Ahmed Kamal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is defined as a delayed in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite avail-ability of vaccination services. This multinational study examined user interaction with social media about COVID-19 vaccination. The study analyzed social media comments in 24 countries from five continents. In total, 5856 responses were analyzed; 83.5% of comments were from Facebook, while 16.5% were from Twitter. In Facebook, the overall vaccine acceptance was 40.3%; the lowest acceptance rates were evident in Jordan (8.5%), Oman (15.0%), Senegal (20.0%) and Morocco (20.7%) and the continental acceptance rate was the lowest in North America 22.6%. In Twitter, the overall acceptance rate was (41.5%); the lowest acceptance rate was found in Oman (14.3%), followed by USA (20.5%), and UK (23.3%) and the continental acceptance rate was the lowest in North America (20.5%), and Europe (29.7%). The differences in vaccine acceptance across countries and continents in Facebook and Twitter were statistically significant. Regarding the tone of the comments, in Face-book, countries that had the highest number of serious tone comments were Sweden (90.9%), United States (61.3%), and Thailand (58.8%). At continent level, serious comments were the highest in Asia (58.4%), followed by Africa (46.2%) and South America (46.2%). In twitter, the highest serious tone was reported in Egypt (72.2%) while at continental level, the highest proportion of serious comments was observed in Asia (59.7%), followed by Europe (46.5%). The differences in tone across countries and continents in Facebook and Twitter and were statistically significant. There was a significant association between the tone and the position of comments. We concluded that the overall vaccine acceptance in social media is relatively low and varied across the studied countries and continents consequently, more in-depth studies are required to address causes of such VH and com-bat infodemics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5737
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume19
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 1 2022

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • COVID-19 vaccine
  • comment tone and position
  • content analysis
  • social media
  • vaccine hesitancy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pollution
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

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