Research code: مقاله مستخرج از پایان نامه کارشناسی ارشد است
Ethics code: IR.IAU.SARI.REC.1401.007
Clinical trials code: مقاله مستخرج از پایان نامه کارشناسی ارشد است
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Sari Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran. , Gh_abbasi@iausari.ac.ir
Abstract: (1786 Views)
Background & Aims: Vaccination is now a key global public health intervention to combat the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus pandemic. key factors associated with vaccine hesitancy were lower perception of risk from the virus, less awareness of the collective benefits of vaccination, doubts about the efficacy of vaccination and worry about potential side effects, particularly in the context of the rapid development and testing of the vaccines. Before the coronavirus pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was listed as one of the ten major threats to global health in 2019 by the World Health Organization, and this issue grew further in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. While most societies eagerly awaited the development of a vaccine against Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic, there is now much doubt about this, and mounting evidence suggests a relatively declining trend in vaccine acceptance worldwide. . Therefore, it is important to identify the psychological factors predicting willingness to be vaccinated in order to develop interventions to increase attitudes and acceptance . Previous research has shown that health anxiety can play an important role in the public's mental health in the spread of infectious diseases. Health anxiety occurs when a person interprets physical changes, emotions, or other stimuli (eg, medical test results) as indicating that their health is at risk. Another important variable that plays a role in predicting the attitude towards the Covid-19 vaccine and public health is intolerance of ambiguity. Intolerance of uncertainty is a morbid fear and causes emotional problems, which results in anxiety. Intolerance of ambiguity includes a negative reaction regardless of the logical possibility of the realization of a phenomenon in case of uncertainty. From this point of view, Intolerance of uncertainty is considered as the main anxiety disorder. So The need for vaccination is important and vital to achieve collective safety and public health. But in order to achieve this important thing, there are obstacles, such as health anxiety and intolerance of ambiguity, in this regard, the authors of this article insisted on conducting this research to further investigate these two variables. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between health anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty with the attitude towards the Covid-19 vaccine.
Methods: This research was a web-based correlational descriptive research. The population of this research included all people who are members of virtual networks and live in Mazandaran province in 2019. The statistical sample of this research included 270 people with access to virtual networks who were in the audience list of researchers and available as a sampling and based on GPower software and the entry criteria were selected. The entry criteria included 1- informed consent, 2- the ability to read Farsi, 3- the ability to use smart virtual communication tools, 4- age between 18 and 60 years. It should be noted that in order to prevent the spread of the corona virus, a web questionnaire was prepared using Google Form. The link of the questionnaire was sent to all the audience of the researchers through email, WhatsApp, Telegram and the news channel of Azad University of Sari branch. The respondents answered the questions by clicking on the questionnaire link. Participation in this study was completely voluntary based on informed consent. Among the received questionnaires based on data screening, 5 items were removed from the analysis due to multivariate outlier data, and finally 265 participants remained.
Results: The results showed that there was a multiple relationship between health anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty and attitude towards the vaccine. Also, there was a positive and significant relationship between health anxiety and vaccine attitude (P < 0.05), and there was a positive and significant relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and vaccine attitude (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between health anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty with attitude towards vaccines. The findings showed that a positive and significant relationship was observed between health anxiety and vaccine attitude. In addition, this variable played a greater role in the attitude towards the vaccine than intolerance of ambiguity. Considering that the vaccine attitude scale in the present study measures the negative attitude towards vaccination, thus, the increase in health anxiety has caused an increase in the negative attitude towards the use of the vaccine. Researchers found that greater fear of COVID-19, which may be similar to health anxiety, was associated with less hesitation about using the vaccine in a French sample. A possible explanation for this conflict could be that for anxious people, the fear of the vaccine and its possible side effects may be greater than the fear of contracting the corona disease. People with health anxiety are prone to misinterpreting harmless feelings and bodily changes as evidence of viral infection. This sensitivity in turn increases their anxiety and affects their behavior and ability to make rational decisions (37). During the outbreak of Corona, people through different information channels, including exposure to news media or social networks, experiences based on learning theory such as classical conditioning (such as the association of injections with adverse effects) and observational learning other people with adverse reactions to vaccines acquire fear and negative expectations about vaccination (38). Other results of this research showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and attitude towards vaccines. In the explanation of this finding, it can be said that intolerance of ambiguity is a cognitive bias that affects the perception, interpretation and behavioral, cognitive and emotional reactions of a person towards uncertain situations and can be effective on people's decision-making and behavior. intolerance of uncertainty can have harmful effects on problem-solving abilities, which can ultimately lead to inaction and avoidance of situations that are perceived as ambiguous. Therefore, the long-term application of this type of self-control when making difficult and frequent decisions reduces a person's ability to make effective decisions over time, especially in a time such as the spread of the corona virus when the threat is considered unpredictable or uncontrollable.
Methods: This research was a web-based correlational descriptive research. The population of this research included all people who are members of virtual networks and live in Mazandaran province in 2019. The statistical sample of this research included 270 people with access to virtual networks who were in the audience list of researchers and available as a sampling and based on GPower software and the entry criteria were selected. The entry criteria included 1- informed consent, 2- the ability to read Farsi, 3- the ability to use smart virtual communication tools, 4- age between 18 and 60 years. It should be noted that in order to prevent the spread of the corona virus, a web questionnaire was prepared using Google Form. The link of the questionnaire was sent to all the audience of the researchers through email, WhatsApp, Telegram and the news channel of Azad University of Sari branch. The respondents answered the questions by clicking on the questionnaire link. Participation in this study was completely voluntary based on informed consent. Among the received questionnaires based on data screening, 5 items were removed from the analysis due to multivariate outlier data, and finally 265 participants remained.
Results: The results showed that there was a multiple relationship between health anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty and attitude towards the vaccine. Also, there was a positive and significant relationship between health anxiety and vaccine attitude (P < 0.05), and there was a positive and significant relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and vaccine attitude (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between health anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty with attitude towards vaccines. The findings showed that a positive and significant relationship was observed between health anxiety and vaccine attitude. In addition, this variable played a greater role in the attitude towards the vaccine than intolerance of ambiguity. Considering that the vaccine attitude scale in the present study measures the negative attitude towards vaccination, thus, the increase in health anxiety has caused an increase in the negative attitude towards the use of the vaccine. Researchers found that greater fear of COVID-19, which may be similar to health anxiety, was associated with less hesitation about using the vaccine in a French sample. A possible explanation for this conflict could be that for anxious people, the fear of the vaccine and its possible side effects may be greater than the fear of contracting the corona disease. People with health anxiety are prone to misinterpreting harmless feelings and bodily changes as evidence of viral infection. This sensitivity in turn increases their anxiety and affects their behavior and ability to make rational decisions (37). During the outbreak of Corona, people through different information channels, including exposure to news media or social networks, experiences based on learning theory such as classical conditioning (such as the association of injections with adverse effects) and observational learning other people with adverse reactions to vaccines acquire fear and negative expectations about vaccination (38). Other results of this research showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and attitude towards vaccines. In the explanation of this finding, it can be said that intolerance of ambiguity is a cognitive bias that affects the perception, interpretation and behavioral, cognitive and emotional reactions of a person towards uncertain situations and can be effective on people's decision-making and behavior. intolerance of uncertainty can have harmful effects on problem-solving abilities, which can ultimately lead to inaction and avoidance of situations that are perceived as ambiguous. Therefore, the long-term application of this type of self-control when making difficult and frequent decisions reduces a person's ability to make effective decisions over time, especially in a time such as the spread of the corona virus when the threat is considered unpredictable or uncontrollable.
Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
Clinical Psychiatry
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