Title : Development and validation of a specific tool to assess vaccination hesitation during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract:
This is a psychometric study aimed at developing and validating a specific scale that assesses the vaccinal hesitancy (VH) behaviours of COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine Hesitancy Scale for Covid-19 vaccines was developed in Brazil based on the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS), developed by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization Working Group (SAGE-WG). Data collection was carried out at the end of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil (between March 1st and June 30th of 2021) with convenience sampling and snowball technique, using electronic forms with 1345 participants. We carried out an Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factorial Analysis (CFA) of 10 items. The results for the EFA suggested only a single dimension, as well as the Unidimensional Congruence (UniCo) = 0.95 and Explained Common Variance (ECV) = 0.90; all items presented a significant factor loading (≥ 0.30), with excellent reliability (Cronbach's Alpha= 0.88). The CFA show the model fit indices were satisfactory (x2 = 66.0538, gl = 35, p = 0.001; RMSEA = 0.03 CI [0.02;0.04]); CFI = 0.98; TLI = 0.98) with the factor loadings cutoff ranging between 0.32 and 0.88. Our findings show that the VH assessment tool for COVID-19 vaccines is a valid, reliable scale and is best represented as a unifactorial 10-item structure yielding a total score.
Audience Take Away
- This presentation will offer information on the development and validation of an assessment tool that assesses the vaccinal hesitancy (VH) behaviours of COVID-19 vaccines.
- The audience will have a better understanding of the importance of having a specific scale to assess VH during Covid-19 pandemic
- Researchers will be able to know about this new tool for better understanding on VH for COVID-19 and perhaps validate it in the context of your country.
