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Abstract
BACKGROUND Vaccination coverage needs to reach more than 80% to resolve the COVID-19 pandemic, but vaccine hesitancy, fuelled by misinformation, may jeopardize this goal. Unvaccinated older adults are not only at risk of COVID-19 complications but may also be misled by false information. Prebunking, based on inoculation theory, involves ‘forewarning people [of] and refuting information that challenges their existing belief or behavior’.
OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of inoculation communication strategies in countering disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines among Canadians aged 50 years and older, as measured by their COVID-19 vaccine intentions.
METHOD Applying an online experiment with a mixed pre–post design and a sample size of 2500 participants, we conducted a national randomized survey among English and French-speaking Canadians aged 50 years and older in March 2021. Responses to two different disinformation messages were evaluated. Our primary outcome was the intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, with attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccine a secondary outcome. The McNemar test and multivariate logistic regression analysis on paired data were conducted when the outcome was dichotomized. Wilcoxon sign rank test and Kruskal–Wallis were used to test difference scores between pre- and post-tests by condition.
RESULTS Group comparisons between those who received only disinformation and those who received the inoculation message show that prebunking messages may safeguard intention to get vaccinated and have a protective effect against disinformation.
CONCLUSION Prebunking messages should be considered as one strategy for public health communication to combat misinformation.
OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of inoculation communication strategies in countering disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines among Canadians aged 50 years and older, as measured by their COVID-19 vaccine intentions.
METHOD Applying an online experiment with a mixed pre–post design and a sample size of 2500 participants, we conducted a national randomized survey among English and French-speaking Canadians aged 50 years and older in March 2021. Responses to two different disinformation messages were evaluated. Our primary outcome was the intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, with attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccine a secondary outcome. The McNemar test and multivariate logistic regression analysis on paired data were conducted when the outcome was dichotomized. Wilcoxon sign rank test and Kruskal–Wallis were used to test difference scores between pre- and post-tests by condition.
RESULTS Group comparisons between those who received only disinformation and those who received the inoculation message show that prebunking messages may safeguard intention to get vaccinated and have a protective effect against disinformation.
CONCLUSION Prebunking messages should be considered as one strategy for public health communication to combat misinformation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 232-242 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Communication in Healthcare: Strategies, Media and Engagement in Global Health |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Mar 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s), but Cornelia Betsch, Philipp Schmid, Sander L van der Linden, Stephan Lewandowsky received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 964728 (JITSUVAX)” and Holly Witteman is funded by a Canada Research Chair in Human-Centred Digital Health.
Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, through the Canadian Immunization Research network: (Award Number: FRN: 173622). We are grateful to Bobbi Rotolo for the manuscript technical and language editing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Structured keywords
- TeDCog
- Covid19
Keywords
- Prebunking
- inoculation theory
- COVID-19
- vaccine
- misinformation
- disinformation
- public health communication
Access to Document
- Full-text PDF (author accepted manuscript)
This is the accepted author manuscript (AAM). The final published version (version of record) is available online via Taylor and Francis at https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2022.2044606. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.
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JITSUVAX: JIU-JITSU WITH MISINFORMATION IN THE AGE OF COVID: USING REFUTATION-BASED LEARNING TO ENHANCE VACCINE UPTAKE AND KNOWLEDGE AMONG HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS AND THE PUBLIC
Lewandowsky, S., Gould, G., Finn, A. H. R., Barden, M. L., Anderson, E. C., Fisher, H. & Roderick, M. R.
1/04/21 → 31/03/25
Project: Research, Parent