Impact of Media Use on Chinese Public Behavior towards Vaccination with the COVID-19 Vaccine: A Latent Profile Analysis

Abstract

(1) Background: research on vaccines has received extensive attention during epidemics. However, few studies have focused on the impact of media use on vaccination behavior and the factors influencing vaccination in groups with different media use degrees; (2) Method: Based on seven items related to media use, a total of 11,031 respondents were categorized by the frequency of media use by using latent profile analysis (LPA). Binary regression analysis was used to study the factors that influence the vaccination behaviors of people with different media use frequencies; (3) Results: All respondents were classified into the following three groups: media use low frequency (9.7%), media use general (67.1%), and media use high frequency (23.2%). Media use low frequency (β = −0.608, p < 0.001) was negatively associated with COVID-19 vaccination behavior. In the media use low frequency, analysis showed that “aged 41 years or older” β = 1.784, p < 0.001), had religious belief (β = 0.075, p < 0.05), were ethnic minorities (β = 0.936, p < 0.01) and had friends support (β = 0.923, p < 0.05) were associated with a preference to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. In the media use general, those who aged 41 years old and older (β = 1.682, p < 0.001), had major depression (β = 0.951, p < 0.05), had friends support (β = 0.048, p < 0.001) would be more likely to receive COVID-19 vaccination. However, respondents who live in towns (β = −0.300, p < 0.01) had lower behaviors to receive vaccination for COVID-19. In the media use high frequency, the respondents who aged 41 or older (β = 1.010, p < 0.001), were ethnic minorities (β = 0.741, p < 0.001), had moderate depression (β = 1.003, p < 0.05) would receive the vaccination for COVID-19 positively; (4) Conclusions: The more occluded the media use is, the less likely the respondents are to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccination behavior is influenced by different factors in groups with different frequencies of media use. Therefore, the government and appropriate departments should make individualized and targeted strategies about COVID-19 vaccination and disseminate the vaccination information to different media use groups.