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Article

Relationship between Citizens’ Health Engagement and Intention to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine in Italy: A Mediation Analysis

1
EngageMinds HUB–Consumer, Food & Health Engagement Research Center, 20123 Milan, Italy
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Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy
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Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via Milano 24, 26100 Cremona, Italy
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Section of Hygiene, Department of Health Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy
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Department of Woman and Child Health and Public Health, Public Health Area, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS, 00168 Rome, Italy
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Faculty of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 20123 Milan, Italy
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Vaccines 2020, 8(4), 576; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8040576
Received: 3 September 2020 / Revised: 24 September 2020 / Accepted: 28 September 2020 / Published: 1 October 2020
The actual effectiveness of the still-to-come vaccination against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 might be challenged by vaccine hesitancy, a rather common and known phenomenon whose psychological predictors are, nevertheless, still largely debated. Our study aims at understanding how adult citizens’ health engagement, perceived COVID-19 susceptibility and severity, and general vaccine-related attitudes affect the willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. To that end, on a sample of Italian citizens, we implemented a path model to test the impact of health engagement on the willingness to vaccinate against SARS-CoV-2, and whether this relationship is direct or mediated by the general attitude towards vaccines and the risk perception. Moreover, we tested the configural and weak invariance of the model across gender and three age groups. Results show that health engagement is positively related to the intention to vaccinate and that this relationship is partially mediated by the general attitude towards vaccines. The model appears invariant across genders and partially invariant across age groups, showing some differences in the role of perceived susceptibility. These findings vouch for the implementation of educational campaigns aimed at sustaining future vaccination programs that also include health engagement promotion. View Full-Text
Keywords: vaccine hesitancy; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; health engagement; vaccine attitude; path model; mediation model; vaccine acceptance; patient engagement vaccine hesitancy; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; health engagement; vaccine attitude; path model; mediation model; vaccine acceptance; patient engagement
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MDPI and ACS Style

Graffigna, G.; Palamenghi, L.; Boccia, S.; Barello, S. Relationship between Citizens’ Health Engagement and Intention to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine in Italy: A Mediation Analysis. Vaccines 2020, 8, 576. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8040576

AMA Style

Graffigna G, Palamenghi L, Boccia S, Barello S. Relationship between Citizens’ Health Engagement and Intention to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine in Italy: A Mediation Analysis. Vaccines. 2020; 8(4):576. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8040576

Chicago/Turabian Style

Graffigna, Guendalina, Lorenzo Palamenghi, Stefania Boccia, and Serena Barello. 2020. "Relationship between Citizens’ Health Engagement and Intention to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine in Italy: A Mediation Analysis" Vaccines 8, no. 4: 576. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines8040576

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