Hesitant or Not? The Association of Age, Gender, and Education with Potential Acceptance of a COVID-19 Vaccine: A Country-level Analysis

Abstract

In December 2020, the first COVID-19 vaccines were approved. Despite more than 85 million reported cases and 1.8 million known deaths, millions worldwide say they may not accept it. This study assesses the associations of age, gender, and level of education with vaccine acceptance, from a random sample of 13,426 participants selected from 19 high-COVID-19 burden countries in June 2020. Based on univariable and multivariable logistic regression, several noteworthy trends emerged: women in France, Germany, Russia, and Sweden were significantly more likely to accept a vaccine than men in these countries. Older (≥50) people in Canada, Poland, France, Germany, Sweden, and the UK were significantly more favorably disposed to vaccination than younger respondents, but the reverse trend held in China. Highly educated individuals in Ecuador, France, Germany, India, and the US reported that they will accept a vaccine, but higher education levels were associated with lower vaccination acceptance in Canada, Spain, and the UK. Heterogeneity by demographic factors in the respondents’ willingness to accept a vaccine if recommended by employers were substantial when comparing responses from Brazil, Ecuador, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, and the US. This information should help public health authorities target vaccine promotion messages more effectively.

Acknowledgments

JVL acknowledges support to ISGlobal from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019–2023” Programme (CEX2018-000806-S) and from the Government of Catalonia through the CERCA Programme.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

Data are available upon request from the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

This study was approved by Emerson College, USA (IRB protocol number 20-023-F-E6/12) with an expiration date of 11 June 2021. The online questionnaire was administered by Emerson College to gather information from respondents after obtaining their written, informed consent about the survey and this project. Equitable compensation per survey was applied ($2 per complete for Mturk data and increased up to US $3 in some countries) regardless of country being polled to comply with ethical compensation standards. No personally identifiable information was collected or stored.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy Foundation, Bocconi University, J. Fielding, the United States Council for International Business Foundation, and K. Rabin. Consensus Strategies was the funding recipient.