Understanding the influenza vaccine as a consumer health technology: a structural equation model of motivation, behavioral expectation, and vaccine adoption

ABSTRACT

Background: While the flu vaccine is a consumer health technology, little is known about whether vaccine adoption can be explained through the lens of technology acceptance frameworks such as the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Based on the social cognitive theory and UTAUT, we aimed to examine the relationship between motivation, behavioral expectation, and behavior in the flu vaccine adoption context.

Method: An online survey was completed by 306 college students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the associations among motivation, behavioral expectation, and vaccine adoption.

Results: Among the 306 participants, nearly one-third of them adopted the flu vaccine annually. The results of SEM showed a good model fit and revealed that motivation was positively associated with behavioral expectation, which in turn was positively correlated to flu vaccine adoption. Motivation was not significantly associated with flu vaccine adoption. Behavioral expectation completely mediated the relationship between motivation and flu vaccine adoption.

Conclusion: Findings show that the relationship between motivation and vaccine adoption is completely mediated by behavioral expectation. To increase vaccine adoption rates in young adults, interventions focusing on boosting motivation and cultivating positive behavioral expectations are warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Flu vaccine
• motivation
• behavioral expectation
• vaccine adoption
• consumer health technology
• UTAUT
• social cognitive theory
• young adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical statement

This study was approved by the UT Austin IRB office.

Notes on contributors

Zhaohui Su, Ph.D., is currently an Assistant Professor at the East Central University. Her research centers on persuasive communication in the health context, specifically, how to best maximize communication impact and health outcomes using persuasive communication techniques such as framing and mnemonic strategies. She received her M.A. in Advertising from the University of Florida and her Ph.D. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work has appeared in Health Communication, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Journal of Supportive Care in Cancer, and Health Expectations.

Chengbo Zeng is currently a Ph.D. student at the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina. He works under the supervision of Dr Xiaoming Li. He earned his M.S. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. His research interests are quantitative analytical methods and mental health of people living with HIV (PLWH). His graduate studies center on developing mobile health intervention to reduce depression among PLWH and applying statistical models to examine intervention mechanisms in randomized controlled trials. His current research topic in South Carolina SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality (CHQ) focuses on HIV prevention and health promotion.

Michael Mackert, Ph.D., is the Director of The University of Texas at Austin Center for Health Communication and Professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations and Department of Population Health. His research focuses primarily on the strategies that can be used in traditional and new digital media to provide effective health communication to low health literate audiences. He leads projects on a variety of public health issues – including tobacco cessation, opioid overdose prevention, and men’s role in prenatal health – that generate evidence-based health communication strategies for our partners and contribute to health communication scholarship.

ORCID

Zhaohui Su http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2005-9504