COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Social Media Users: A Content Analysis, Multi-Continent Study

Ramy Shaaban; Ramy Mohamed Ghazy; Fawzia Elsherif; Nancy Ali; Youssef Yakoub; Maged Osama Aly; Rony ElMakhzangy; Marwa Shawky Abdou; Bonny McKinna; Amira Mohamed Elzorkany; Fatimah Abdullah; Amr Alnagar; Nashwa ElTaweel; Majed Alharthi; Ali Mohsin; Ana Ordóñez-Cruickshank; Bianca Toniolo; Tâmela Grafolin; Thit Thit Aye; Yong Zhin Goh; Ehsan Akram Deghidy; Siti Bahri; Jarntrah Sappayabanphot; Yasir Ahmed Mohammed Elhadi; Salma Mohammed; Ahmed Nour El-Deen; Ismail Ismail; Samar Abd ElHafeez; Iffat Elbarazi; Basema Saddik; Ziad El-Khatib; Hiba Mohsin; Ahmed Kamal

doi:10.3390/ijerph19095737

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Social Media Users: A Content Analysis, Multi-Continent Study

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 8;19(9):5737. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095737.

Authors

Ramy Shaaban¹, Ramy Mohamed Ghazy², Fawzia Elsherif³, Nancy Ali⁴, Youssef Yakoub⁴, Maged Osama Aly⁵, Rony ElMakhzangy⁶, Marwa Shawky Abdou³, Bonny McKinna⁷, Amira Mohamed Elzorkany⁸, Fatimah Abdullah⁹, Amr Alnagar¹⁰, Nashwa ElTaweel¹¹, Majed Alharthi¹², Ali Mohsin¹³, Ana Ordóñez-Cruickshank⁷, Bianca Toniolo¹⁴, Tâmela Grafolin¹⁴, Thit Thit Aye¹⁵, Yong Zhin Goh⁷, Ehsan Akram Deghidy¹⁶, Siti Bahri¹⁷, Jarntrah Sappayabanphot¹⁸, Yasir Ahmed Mohammed Elhadi¹⁹, Salma Mohammed²⁰, Ahmed Nour El-Deen²¹, Ismail Ismail²², Samar Abd ElHafeez³, Iffat Elbarazi²³, Basema Saddik²⁴, Ziad El-Khatib²⁵, Hiba Mohsin²⁶, Ahmed Kamal²⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84321, USA.
² Tropical Health Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
³ Epidemiology Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Communications Media, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15705, USA.
⁵ Nutrition Department, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
⁶ Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21545, Egypt.
⁷ Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 13353 Berlin, Germany.
⁸ Training and Biostatistics Administration, Ministry of Health and Population, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
⁹ Internal Medicine Department, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21526, Egypt.
¹⁰ General Surgery Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
¹¹ University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, Coventry CV2 2DX, UK.
¹² Faculty of Communication and Media, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 22254, Saudi Arabia.
¹³ Biomedical Engineering Department, Collage of Engineering, Wraith Al-Anbiyaa University, Karbala 56001, Iraq.
¹⁴ LabCom Research Unit, University of Beira Interior, Foundation for Science and Technology, 6201-001 Covilha, Portugal.
¹⁵ Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
¹⁶ Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Statistics, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21526, Egypt.
¹⁷ Pharmacy Department, Rompin Hospital, Ministry of Health Malaysia, 62590 Putrajaya, Malaysia.
¹⁸ Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
¹⁹ Department of Public Health, Medical Research Office, Sudanese Medical Research Association, Khartoum 11111, Sudan.
²⁰ Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden.
²¹ Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt.
²² Department of Neurology, Ibn Sina Hospital, Safat, Kuwait City 13115, Kuwait.
²³ Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain 15551, United Arab Emirates.
²⁴ College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates.
²⁵ Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, 17176 Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁶ College of Pharmacy, Al-Zahraa University for Women, Karbala 56001, Iraq.
²⁷ Hepatology Unit, Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21131, Egypt.

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy (VH) is defined as a delayed in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. This multinational study examined user interaction with social media about COVID-19 vaccination. The study analyzed social media comments in 24 countries from five continents. In total, 5856 responses were analyzed; 83.5% of comments were from Facebook, while 16.5% were from Twitter. In Facebook, the overall vaccine acceptance was 40.3%; the lowest acceptance rates were evident in Jordan (8.5%), Oman (15.0%), Senegal (20.0%) and Morocco (20.7%) and the continental acceptance rate was the lowest in North America 22.6%. In Twitter, the overall acceptance rate was (41.5%); the lowest acceptance rate was found in Oman (14.3%), followed by USA (20.5%), and UK (23.3%) and the continental acceptance rate was the lowest in North America (20.5%), and Europe (29.7%). The differences in vaccine acceptance across countries and continents in Facebook and Twitter were statistically significant. Regarding the tone of the comments, in Facebook, countries that had the highest number of serious tone comments were Sweden (90.9%), USA (61.3%), and Thailand (58.8%). At continent level, serious comments were the highest in Asia (58.4%), followed by Africa (46.2%) and South America (46.2%). In Twitter, the highest serious tone was reported in Egypt (72.2%) while at continental level, the highest proportion of serious comments was observed in Asia (59.7%), followed by Europe (46.5%). The differences in tone across countries and continents in Facebook and Twitter and were statistically significant. There was a significant association between the tone and the position of comments. We concluded that the overall vaccine acceptance in social media was relatively low and varied across the studied countries and continents. Consequently, more in-depth studies are required to address causes of such VH and combat infodemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccine; comment tone and position; content analysis; social media; vaccine hesitancy.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Humans
Morocco
Social Media*
Thailand
Vaccination
Vaccines*

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines
Vaccines

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.