Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among college students: a study of the attitudes, knowledge, and willingness of students to vaccinate

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographics, univariate and multivariate analyses of factors associated with students’ attitudes, knowledge, and willingness to vaccinate (N = 3256)

			Attitudes				Knowledge				Vaccination willingness
Variable	Content	N (%)	M ± SD	t/F	p	β	Scoring rate	Z/H	p	β	Scoring rate	Z/H	p	β
Sex
	Male	1230(37.8)	38.26 ± 5.31	−0.97	.33		73%	−12.70	<.001	−0.38**	84.7%	−2.56	.01	−0.13**
	Female	2026(62.2)	38.44 ± 4.38				80.9%				86.8%
Age(years)
	18~	519(15.9)	38.54 ± 4.73	2.30	.04		75.7%	55.56	<.001	0.03*	86.1%	18.30	.003	0.04**
	19~	978(30)	38.22 ± 4.69				76.4%				85%
	20~	742(22.8)	38.56 ± 4.82				77.4%				85.4%
	21~	520(16)	37.93 ± 4.71				80.6%				86.9%
	22~	314(9.6)	38.41 ± 4.72				81.7%				86.7%
	23~	183(5.6)	39.09 ± 4.98				80.3%				89.2%
Nationality
	Han	3206(98.5)	38.36 ± 4.74	−1.27	.20		78%	−1.84	.07		86%	−1.21	.23
	Others	50(1.5)	39.22 ± 5.72				74.1%				88%
Specialty
	Science and Engineering	491(15.1)	38.58 ± 4.97	1.43	.23	0.59*	74%	81.09	<.001		82.1%	142.52	<.001
	Humanities and Social Science	1378(42.3)	38.47 ± 4.77				77.6%				84.7%
	Medicine	821(25.2)	38.09 ± 4.65				81.2%			0.2**	87.2%
	Natural Science	566(17.4)	38.36 ± 4.66				77.4%				90.7%			0.1*
Grade
	Class of 2017	216(6.6)	38.15 ± 4.88	0.40	.75		81.5%	54.85	<.001	−0.05*	86.6%	2.61	.46	0.05**
	Class of 2018	522(16)	38.23 ± 4.71				80.7%				86.4%
	Class of 2019	789(24.2)	38.41 ± 4.87				78.7%				86.6%
	Class of 2020	1729(53.1)	38.42 ± 4.70				76.3%				85.5%
Academic background in high school
	Liberal Arts	1353(41.6)	38.69 ± 4.63	3.19	.001	0.67**	79%	−3.38	.001		85.8%	−1.86	.06
	Science	1903(58.5)	38.15 ± 4.82				77.1%				86.1%
Parental family living environment
	New community	1286(39.5)	38.52 ± 4.78	1.08	.36		79%	17.64	.001		86.9%	14.39	.006
	Old community over 30 years	220(6.8)	38.62 ± 4.84				77.4%				84.8%
	Village in the city	156(4.8)	38.36 ± 4.53				76.4%			−0.2*	87.4%
	Public rental housing	36(1.1)	38.92 ± 5.38				72.9%				85.8%
	Rural area	1558(47.9)	38.20 ± 4.73			−0.5**	77.3%			−0.16**	85.3%
Politics affiliations
	Party member	142(4.4)	38.17 ± 6.21	1.73	.18		78.1%	27.94	<.001		88.1%	17.78	<.001
	League member	2560(78.6)	38.45 ± 4.65				78.7%				86.3%
	Other	554(17)	38.05 ± 4.78				74.2%				84%
Family economic conditions
	Good	158(4.9)	37.80 ± 6.02	2.73	.07	−0.45*	75.6%	4.07	.13		85.4%	4.00	.14
	Medium	2469(75.8)	38.32 ± 4.54				78.2%				86.3%
	Poor	629(19.3)	38.70 ± 5.18				77.3%				84.9%
Monthly spending level (RMB)
	<800	462(14.2)	38.75 ± 5.13	1.88	.11	−0.31*	76.1%	25.94	<.001	−0.07*	84.4%	9.30	.05	−0.05*
	800–1500	2161(66.4)	38.38 ± 4.60				78.5%				86.3%
	1500–2500	541(16.6)	38.16 ± 4.54				78.5%				86.7%
	2500–3500	61(1.9)	37.34 ± 4.99				74.4%				84.4%
	>3500	31(1)	37.65 ± 9.92				62.3%				79.4%
Travel to above medium risk areas in the past six months
	Yes	25(0.8)	40.52 ± 10.08	1.07	.29	2.07*	63.1%	−3.14	.002	−0.75**	80%	−1.23	.22
	No	3231(99.2)	38.35 ± 4.69				78%				86%
Underlying diseases
	Yes	66(2)	37.42 ± 5.90	−1.63	.10		79.8%	−0.95	.34		82.6%	−1.45	.15
	No	3190(98)	38.39 ± 4.72				77.9%				86.1%
The COVID-19 vaccine was inoculated
	Yes	598(18.4)	38.27 ± 4.97	−0.56	.57		79%	−2.70	.007		94.7%	−19.06	<.001	0.65**
	No	2658(81.6)	38.39 ± 4.70				77.7%				84%
Family members received the COVID-19 vaccine
	Yes	1347(41.4)	38.58 ± 4.69	2.15	.03	0.45*	79.3%	−5.03	<.001	0.15**	88.6%	−9.67	<.001	0.14**
	No	1909(58.6)	38.22 ± 4.79				76.9%				84.1%
You or your family members had side effects after receiving other vaccines
	Yes	44(1.4)	37.91 ± 5.49	−0.65	.52		77.9%	−0.54	.59		77.3%	−3.44	.001	−0.57**
	No	3212(98.7)	38.38 ± 4.74				77.9%				86.1%

(Linear regression analysis was carried out after normalizing knowledge and willingness scores.)

*p < .05, **p < .01.

Table 2. Scores of attitudes, knowledge and willingness to vaccinate (N = 3256)

Dimension	Item	Score range	Mean ± SD	P50(P25, P75)	Scoringrate (%)
Attitudes		11–55	38.37 ± 4.75		69.8%
	Do you think that contracting COVID-19 has a significant impact on your health?	1–5	3.91 ± 1.22		78.2%
	Do you think it will affect the people around you or the environment if you get COVID-19?	1–5	4.45 ± 0.90		89%
	Do you think that the current pandemic is serious?	1–5	3.12 ± 0.84		62.4%
	Do you think that the pandemic will recur in China?	1–5	3.08 ± 1.01		61.6%
	How much has the pandemic affected your life in the past 6 months?	1–5	3.55 ± 0.93		71%
	How much will the pandemic affect your life in the next 6 months?	1–5	2.89 ± 0.85		57.8%
	Do you think that you are at high risk of contracting COVID-19?	1–5	2.31 ± 0.98		46.2%
	Do you think that you can get prevention from COVID-19 by vaccination?	1–5	3.83 ± 0.61		76.6%
	Do you think that COVID-19 vaccines available on the market are safe?	1–5	3.65 ± 0.69		73%
	Do you think that the vaccine is effective?	1–5	3.74 ± 0.65		74.8%
	How much do you care about vaccine-related information?	1–5	3.85 ± 0.82		77%
Knowledge		1–46		38(32, 41)	77.9%
	Which are the priority groups for vaccination?	0–8		8(7,8)	87.9%
	What is the recommended age group for vaccination?	0/5		4(4, 4)	76.2%
	What are the correct methods of vaccination?	0–8		5(3, 7)	62.3%
	What are the contraindications for the vaccine?	0–5		5(4,5)	85.8%
	Regarding adverse reactions to vaccination, which of the following statements are true?	0–5		5(4,5)	83.2%
	Matters needing attention	0–5		5(4,5)	84%
	How can herd immunity be achieved through vaccination?	0/5		5(5, 5)	79.8%
	In general, how familiar are you with the COVID-19 vaccine?	1–5		3(3, 4)	67.6%
Vaccination willingness		2–8		7(6, 8)	86%
	Would you like to receive the COVID-19 vaccine?	1–6		5(5, 6)	85.2%
	Would you be willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine if you are charged for it in the future?	1–2		2(2, 2)	88.5%
Total scale		14–109	81.09 ± 9.55		74.4%

Figure 1. Color-coded bars from left to right represent seven different vaccination intentions: “Information sources”; “Vaccine choice”; “Vaccination form”; “Desired vaccine protection periods”; “Reasons for willingness to be vaccinated”; “Reasons for unwillingness/hesitation to be vaccinated”; and “Vaccine prices.” The different options are described below the same color bar chart. The number of students choosing one item/total number of students (3256) = the proportion of this item. The higher the proportion (i.e., more students choosing this item), the higher the willingness of students to choose this option.

Table 3. The correlation betweenattitudes, knowledge, willingness and total scale

	Attitudes	Knowledge	Willingness
Attitudes	1
Knowledge	0.13**	1
Willingness	0.25**	0.24**	1
Total scale	0.62**	0.85**	0.43**

*p < .05, **p < .01.