Examining the direct and indirect effects of trust in motivating COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
Sixiao Liu, Haoran Chu
PMID 35181177WHAT IT FOUND
People who trusted healthcare providers viewed COVID-19 vaccines as more effective and had fewer safety concerns, and that was linked to greater intention to get vaccinated and higher uptake.
Nurses may be a trusted source for vaccine counseling.
Key findings
01Trust in healthcare providers was associated with a more positive attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines, and that association was linked to seeing the vaccine as effective and having fewer safety concerns.
02Trust in healthcare providers, public health agencies, and pharmaceutical companies was associated with vaccine uptake through perceived effectiveness, safety concerns, anger, and hope, while trust in politicians was not.
03Hope was the only emotion positively associated with vaccination intention, and anger was the only emotion negatively associated with vaccine attitude.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The final analysed sample was 534 adults recruited from an online platform, and the paper notes that such samples can overrepresent women and educated people. The sample was relatively older and less racially diverse than the U.S. population, with mean age 50.8 years, so the findings may not apply to all patients. Trust was measured with single items, which the authors say may limit variance and validity and may help explain why trust in politicians showed no effects. The model did not adjust for multiple testing, and the authors warn this can create false positives. Vaccine access and information changed rapidly between waves, and some participants may not have known their eligibility. This was a survey of associations, not a tested vaccine communication intervention, so it cannot show what a clinician should do to increase uptake.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest; no funding statement appears in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the trust findings as proof that clinician counseling causes vaccination. The study was a two-wave survey of associations, and it did not test a vaccine communication intervention.