Social communication pathways to COVID-19 vaccine side-effect expectations and experience

Kelly S. Clemens · Kate Faasse · Winston Tan · Ben Colagiuri · Luana Colloca · Rebecca Webster +3 more

24 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Psychosomatic Research

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Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy Misinformation and Its Impacts COVID-19 and Mental Health

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Negative beliefs about medication and vaccine side-effects can spread rapidly through social communication. This has been recently documented with the potential side-effects from the COVID-19 vaccines. We tested if pre-vaccination social communications about side-effects from personal acquaintances, news reports, and social media predict post-vaccination side-effect experiences. Further, as previous research suggests that side-effects can be exacerbated by negative expectations, we assessed if personal expectations mediate the relationships between social communication and side-effect experience. METHOD: In a prospective longitudinal survey (N = 551), COVID-19 vaccine side-effect information from three sources-social media posts, news reports, and first-hand accounts from personal acquaintances-as well as side-effect expectations, were self-reported pre-vaccination. Vaccination side-effect experience was assessed post-vaccination. RESULTS: In multivariate regression analyses, the number of pre-vaccination social media post views (β = 0.17) and impressions of severity conveyed from personal acquaintances (β = 0.42) significantly predicted an increase in pre-vaccination side-effect expectations, and the same variables (βs = 0.11, 0.14, respectively) predicted post-vaccination side-effect experiences. Moreover, pre-vaccination side-effect expectations mediated the relationship between both sources of social communication and experienced side-effects from a COVID-19 vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies links between personal acquaintance and social media communications and vaccine side-effect experiences and provides evidence that pre-vaccination expectations account for these relationships. The results suggest that modifying side-effect expectations through these channels may change the side-effects following a COVID-19 vaccination as well as other publicly discussed vaccinations and medications.

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References

2020The COVID-19 social media infodemic 2021COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in low- and middle-income countries 2021Lack of Trust, Conspiracy Beliefs, and Social Media Use Predict COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy 2021News media coverage of COVID-19 public health and policy information 2019Applied Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences 2021Fear of Adverse Effects and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Recommendations of the Treatment Expectation Expert Group 2002Significant Others and the Self 2020Modeling Impact of Word of Mouth and E-Government on Online Social Presence during COVID-19 Outbreak: A Multi-Mediation Approach

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2025Exploring the relationship between experience of vaccine adverse events and vaccine hesitancy: A scoping review 2022Factors Moderating the Link between Personal Recounts of COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects Viewed on Social Media and Viewer Postvaccination Experience

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