The Impact of Knowledge and Trust on COVID-19 Vaccination Intention: Analysis of a Population Group with Low Incentives to Vaccinate in Spain

Abstract

Young people, as a group, are not strongly incentivised to vaccinate against COVID-19, given how the disease affects them. To discover the factors which help increase people’s intention to take the COVID-19 vaccine, using a variety of dimensions to measure Knowledge (K), Trust (T), the Health Belief Model (HBM), and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in Spanish university students as a collective. We analysed the proposed models using multiple-regression analysis, incorporating the variables of the constructs in a hierarchical manner, introducing them in the following order: TPB, K, T. HBM was excluded, given that no significant statistical relationship was found. The data used for the study are drawn from an anonymous questionnaire put to 3,542 students at the University of Salamanca (Spain). Our model accounts for 43.1% of the variance in vaccination intention. Neither severity nor susceptibility, which are fundamental constructs in the health belief model, have an impact on vaccination intention for this group of people. The Theory of Planned Behaviour accounts for 32.1% of the variance. Interesting mediating effects are discovered, indicating that knowledge lowers levels of trust in the Government, but increases trust in scientific experts. Both types of trust have a positive impact on vaccination intention. Messages based on the risk of contracting the disease do not appear to be effective incentives for this group of people to take up the vaccine. Information campaigns need to be transparent and rigorous. This does not mean that they need to go into great depth on a technical level; however, it is advisable that the information come from trustworthy scientific experts.