COVID-19 Vaccination and Mental Stress within Diverse Sociodemographic Groups

Abstract

In this study, we surveyed 635 participants to determine: (a) major causes of mental stress during the pandemic and its future impacts, and (b) diversity in public perception of the COVID-19 vaccination and its acceptance (specifically for children). Statistical results and intelligent clustering outcomes indicate significant associations between sociodemographic diversity, mental stress causes, and vaccination perception. For instance, statistical results indicate significant dependence between gender (we will use term ‘sex’ in the rest of the manuscript) and mental stress due to COVID-19 infection (p = 1.7 × 10−5). Over 25% of males indicated work-related stress compared to 35% in females, however, females indicated that they were more stressed (17%) due to relationships compared to males (12%). Around 30% of Asian/Arabic participants do not feel that the vaccination is safe as compared to 8% of white British and 22% of white Europeans, indicating significant dependence (p = 1.8 × 10−8) with ethnicity. More specifically, vaccination acceptance for children is significantly dependent with ethnicity (p = 3.7 × 10−5) where only 47% participants show willingness towards children’s vaccination. The primary dataset in this study along with experimental outcomes identifying sociodemographic information diversity with respect to public perception and acceptance of vaccination in children and potential stress factors might be useful for the public and policymakers to help them be better prepared for future epidemics, as well as working globally to combat mental health issues.