The Psychological Experience of COVID-19 Vaccination and Its Impact on the Willingness to Receive Booster Vaccines among the Chinese Population: Evidence from a National Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychological experience of COVID-19 basic vaccination, the willingness to receive booster vaccines, and to determine their relationships among Chinese people. Between 6 August 2021 and 9 August 2021, a research firm performed a national cross-sectional online survey among Chinese individuals (aged over 18), using the snowball sampling approach, with 26,755 participants. Factor analysis and binary logistic regression were used to evaluate the existing associations. The overall COVID-19 vaccination psychological experience score of the participants was 25.83 (25.78~25.89; scores ranged from 7–35). A total of 93.83% (95%CI = 93.54~94.12) of respondents indicated a willingness to receive booster vaccines. After classifying psychological experiences associated with COVID-19 vaccination into positive and negative experiences and adjusting for confounding factors, for the former, the willingness to receive booster vaccines for participants with the highest scores of 13–15 was 3.933 times higher (OR = 3.933, 95%CI = 3.176~4.871) than participants who obtained scores of 3–9, and for the latter, the willingness to receive booster vaccines for participants with the highest scores of 19–20 was 8.871 times higher (OR = 8.871, 95%CI = 6.240~12.612) than participants who obtained scores of 4–13. Our study suggests that a good psychological experience with vaccination is positively associated with an increased willingness to receive booster vaccines.