Vaccine attitudes among young adults in Asia: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Young adults may be facing growing threats from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). However, vaccination of young adults may not have drawn adequate attention. In Asia, adensely populated region with ahigh proportion of low-income countries, VPDs impose more of an economic and social burden than in western countries. However, knowledge about attitudes toward vaccines among young Asians is limited. This study aims to fill that gap by describing attitudes toward vaccines and how well they are accepted among young Asian adults through asystematic review of relevant Chinese and English publications.

Methods: A three-stage searching strategy was adopted to identify eligible studies published during 2009–2019 according to the selection criteria, resulting in 68 articles being included.

Results: The review finds that vaccination coverage among young Asians is generally lower than among their western peers, and there is a lack of relevant study in many Asian countries. Factors influencing young Asians’ attitudes toward vaccines are categorized into contextual level, individual and social level, and vaccine-specific level.

Conclusion: These suggest that there is a need to strengthen young adults’ vaccination programs and to promote vaccine-related information and government.

KEYWORDS:

• Vaccines
• attitude
• young adults
• Asia

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The authors declare they have no competing interests.

List of abbreviations

VPDs	=	Vaccine-preventable diseases
LICs	=	Low-income countries
HPV	=	Human papilloma virus
HBV	=	Hepatitis B virus
HepB	=	Hepatitis B vaccine
MMR	=	Measles, mumps, and rubella conjugate vaccine
NIP	=	National Immunization Program
EPI	=	Expanded Program on Immunization

Availability of data and materials

Data can be made available by request.

Ethics statement

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Anhui Medical University.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Grants for Scientific Research of BSKY [XJ201814] from Anhui Medical University, and was supported by Grants from NHC Key Laboratory of Health Economics and Policy Research[NHC-HEPR2019009]