Hesitant or not: A cross-sectional study of socio-demographics, conspiracy theories, trust in public health information, social capital and vaccine hesitancy among older adults in Ghana

Figures & data

Table 1. Vaccine hesitancy according to associated socio-demographics.

Variables		Vaccine Hesitance		Total (%)	P-value
		Yes	No
Location	Greater Accra Metropolis Kumasi Metropolis	105 (45.3) 127 (54.7)	77 (45.8) 91 (54.2)	182 (45.5) 218 (54.5)	.497
Gender	Males Females	82 (35.3) 150 (64.7)	70 (41.7) 98 (58.3)	152 (38.0) 248 (62.0)	.119
Age (years)	50–60 years 61-70years Above 70 years	125 (53.9) 85 (36.6) 22 (9.5)	86 (51.2) 64 (38.1) 18 (10.7)	211 (52.8) 149 (37.2) 40 (10)	.845
Religion	Christian Non-Christian	178 (76.7) 54 (23.3)	153 (91.1) 15 (8.9)	331 (82.8) 69 (17.2)	< .001*
Marital Status	Married Divorced Widowed	127 (54.7) 45 (19.4) 60 (25.9)	102 (60.7) 34 (20.2) 32 (19.0)	229 (57.2) 79 (19.8) 92 (23.0)	.271
Level of Education	No formal education Basic education High school education Tertiary education	49 (21.1) 75 (32.3) 41 (17.7) 67 (28.9)	21 (12.5) 49 (29.2) 58 (34.5) 40 (23.8)	70 (17.5) 124 (31.0) 99 (24.8) 107 (26.8)	.001*
Employment	Employed Retired	232 (100) 0 (0)	18 (10.7) 150 (89.3)	250 (62.5) 150 (37.5)	< .001*
Perceived socio-economic status	Extremely poor Quite poor Not very well off Quite well off	41 (17.7) 86 (37.1) 76 (32.8) 29 (12.5)	27 (16.1) 71 (42.3) 45 (26.8) 25 (14.9)	68 (17.0) 157 (39.2) 121 (30.2) 54 (13.5)	.498

P-value < .05.

* = a statistically significant result.

Table 2. Determinants of vaccine hesitancy among older adults.

	Model 1		Model 2/Full Model
Variable	AOR	95% C.I	AOR	95% C.I
Socio-Demographic Variables
Gender^a
Female	0.923*	(0.021–0.045)	0.734	(0.019–0.036)
Age (years)^b
61–70	1.452	(0.023–0.065)	0.983	(0.748–1.673)
Above 70	0.963	(0.998–1.293)	1.983	(0.886–2.963)
Marital Status^c
Divorced	1.082	(0.043–1.093)	1.382	(0.047–1.053)
Widowed	2.253	(0.672–1.109)	1.173	(0.863–2.220)
Religious group^d
Non-Christian	0.762	(0.783–1.783)	1.753	(0.783–1.092)
Education^e
Basic	0.975	(0.387–1.982)	0.382	(0.983–1.072)
Secondary or high school	2.096	(0.298–1.982)	0.653	(0.054–0.352)
Tertiary	0.963	(0.017–2.256)	0.988	(0.064–0.836)
Employment Status^f
Retired	0.034*	(0.024–0.048)	0.861*	(0.003–0.028)
Socio-economic status^g
Quite poor	1.823	(0.398–0.036)	0.516	(0.246–0.083)
Not very well off	2.073	(0.083–0.392)	0.440	(0.159–0.221)
Quite well off	0732	(0.054–0.972)	0.805	(0.124–0.776)
Trust in health information and social capital-related variables
Believe in conspiracy theories^h			3.167*	(1.021–2.043)
Trust in public health information^i			0.065*	(0.022–0.049)
Social capital^j			0.886*	(0.017–0.032)
Model fitting information −2Log Likelihood		2673.096		367.982
Hosmer-Lemeshow χ^2 (significance)		11.23(0.006)		7.781(0.025)
Nagelkerke R^2		0.253		0.063

* p ˂ .05.

^aMale is the reference category for the gender variable.

^b50–60 years is the reference category for the age variable

^cMarried is the reference category for the marital status variable.

^dChristian is the reference category for religious variables.

^eNo formal education is the reference category for the education variable.

^fEmployed is the reference group for the employment variable.

^gExtremely poor is the reference category for socio-economic status.

^hYes is the reference group for the belief in conspiracy theories variable.

ⁱYes is the reference group for the trust in health information variable.

^jYes is the reference group for the social capital variable.

Model 1 = Socio-Demographic variables; Model 2 = All variables in Model 1 plus Trust in health information and social capital-related variables.

CI = Confidence Interval; OR = Odd Ratio = AOR = Adjusted Odd Ratio.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.