A study involving over one million people in the United Kingdom revealed that a significant portion of individuals initially hesitant about COVID-19 vaccination eventually received at least one dose.
Researchers utilized data from the REACT study, which monitored SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in England. The study linked participant demographics, health, and behavior data with their National Health Service (NHS) vaccination records. The analysis included 1.1 million individuals sampled between January 2021, when vaccination questions were added, and March 2022.
Throughout the study period, approximately 38,000 people, representing 3.3% of the cohort, reported some form of vaccine hesitancy. Hesitancy rates reached a peak of 8% in early 2021, decreased to 1.1% by early 2022, and then slightly increased to 2.2%. A key finding was that 65% of those initially hesitant subsequently received one or more vaccinations.
Marc Chadeau-Hyam, a computational epidemiologist at Imperial College London and lead author of the study published in The Lancet, identified eight broad categories for hesitancy. These included concerns about vaccine efficacy and side effects, logistical challenges with vaccination sites, distrust in vaccine manufacturers, and personal health concerns. Chadeau-Hyam suggested these findings could help improve future vaccination adherence by targeting specific concerns.
The study indicated that concerns related to vaccine efficacy and health were the most common reasons for hesitancy, and individuals with these worries were most likely to proceed with vaccination. However, reasons such as a lack of trust in medicine were identified as more persistent barriers.
Hesitancy, along with persistent non-vaccination, was more prevalent among residents of economically deprived areas, unemployed individuals, and those with lower levels of education. Women exhibited higher initial hesitancy rates than men but were less likely to remain unvaccinated after expressing initial concerns, possibly due to temporary reasons like pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Chadeau-Hyam expressed hope that the study's results would aid in future vaccine rollouts by allowing efforts to focus on addressing concrete concerns with accurate information. Noni MacDonald, a paediatric infectious-disease specialist, commented on the study's quality but questioned its broader applicability outside the specific context of a pandemic.