Assessing How Risk Communication Surveillance Prompts COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Among Internet Users by Applying the Situational Theory of Problem Solving: Cross-sectional Study (Preprint)

Abstract

The World Health Organization has recently raised concerns regarding the low number of people fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The low ratio of fully vaccinated people and the emergence of renewed infectious variants correspond to worsening public health. Global health managers have highlighted COVID-19 vaccine–related infodemics as a significant risk perception factor hindering mass vaccination campaigns.

Given the ambiguous digital communication environment that has fostered infodemics, resource-limited nations struggle to boost public willingness to encourage people to fully vaccinate. Authorities have launched some risk communication–laden digital interventions in response to infodemics. However, the value of the risk communication strategies used to tackle infodemics needs to be evaluated. The current research using the tenets of the Situational Theory of Problem Solving is novel, as it explores the impending effects of risk communication strategies. The relationship between infodemic-induced risk perception of COVID-19 vaccine safety and risk communication actions to intensify willingness to be fully vaccinated was examined.

This study used a cross-sectional research design vis-à-vis a nationally representative web-based survey. We collected data from 1946 internet users across Pakistan. Participants voluntarily participated in this research after completing the consent form and reading ethical permissions. Responses were received over 3 months, from May 2022 to July 2022.

The results delineated that infodemics positively affected risk perception. This realization pushed the public to engage in risky communicative actions through reliance on and searches for accurate information. Therefore, the prospect of managing infodemics through risk information exposure (eg, digital interventions) using the situational context could predict robust willingness to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

These pioneering results offer strategic considerations for health authorities to effectively manage the descending spiral of optimal protection against COVID-19. This research concludes that the likelihood of managing infodemics using situational context through exposure to relevant information could improve one’s knowledge of forfending and selection, which can lead to robust protection against COVID-19. Hence, more situation-specific information about the underlying problem (ie, the selection of an appropriate vaccine) can be made accessible through several official digital sources to achieve a more active public health response.