Identifying and Evaluating the Socioeconomic Factors of COVID Vaccine Hesitancy Through an Integrated Multicriteria Decision Analysis Approach

Waqas Ahmed; Sharafat Ali; Hamid Waqas; Muhammad Asghar; Naila Erum

doi:10.1007/s40609-023-00268-9

Identifying and Evaluating the Socioeconomic Factors of COVID Vaccine Hesitancy Through an Integrated Multicriteria Decision Analysis Approach

Glob Soc Welf. 2023 Feb 22:1-9. doi: 10.1007/s40609-023-00268-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Waqas Ahmed¹, Sharafat Ali^{2

3}, Hamid Waqas¹, Muhammad Asghar⁴, Naila Erum^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Management and Marketing, Westminster International University in Tashkent, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
² College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106 China.
³ Department of Economics, Government Graduate College Kot Sultan, Kot Sultan, 31650 Layyah Punjab, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Economics, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Political Science, Rawalpindi Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
⁶ Accounting Research Institute, University Technology, MARA, Shah Alam, UiTM Malaysia.

Abstract

The governments have been facing the challenges to develop tailored strategies to decrease COVID vaccine hesitancy (CVH) and refusal and increase the acceptability and uptake to ensure the protection of public health. In Pakistan, it has been a great challenge for the government to increase the acceptability of the COVID vaccine. CVH has been a great hurdle to achieving this objective. The authors found it imperative to identify and evaluate the factors of CVH in Pakistan. For this purpose, the authors used an integrated multicriteria decision analysis method (MCDM) by combining Delphi and DEMATEL methods. The factors of CVH have been identified and finalized using the Delphi method. The experts' opinions were obtained to evaluate the factors. The DEMATEL method was used to find out the most critical factor(s) of CVH. Moreover, the cause/effect relationship was also developed to have a better understating of factors and their relationships. The analysis revealed "ineffective public awareness strategies" as the most critical factor of CVH followed by "misinformation and disinformation, conspiracy theories", and "acquired knowledge". The study also examined the cause-and-effect relationship between the prioritized factors. The government in Pakistan introduced successful efforts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the government could do more to increase vaccine acceptance. For this purpose to serve effective scientific and evidence-based public awareness strategies are needed to increase the acquired knowledge and deal with misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories to increase vaccine acceptance. The government could sue the media, especially social media to increase vaccination. The findings of the study provide a detailed understanding of the CVH in Pakistan and develop a comprehensive public health strategy to deal with any health-related potential issues in the future.

Keywords: COVID vaccine hesitancy; DEMATEL, COVID prevention strategy; Pakistan; Public health; Socioeconomic factors.

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