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COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in low- and middle-income countries

Overview of attention for article published in Nature Medicine, July 2021
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
85 news outlets
blogs
9 blogs
policy
4 policy sources
twitter
1017 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
747 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
1103 Mendeley
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Title
COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in low- and middle-income countries
Published in
Nature Medicine, July 2021
DOI 10.1038/s41591-021-01454-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Julio S. Solís Arce, Shana S. Warren, Niccolò F. Meriggi, Alexandra Scacco, Nina McMurry, Maarten Voors, Georgiy Syunyaev, Amyn Abdul Malik, Samya Aboutajdine, Opeyemi Adeojo, Deborah Anigo, Alex Armand, Saher Asad, Martin Atyera, Britta Augsburg, Manisha Awasthi, Gloria Eden Ayesiga, Antonella Bancalari, Martina Björkman Nyqvist, Ekaterina Borisova, Constantin Manuel Bosancianu, Magarita Rosa Cabra García, Ali Cheema, Elliott Collins, Filippo Cuccaro, Ahsan Zia Farooqi, Tatheer Fatima, Mattia Fracchia, Mery Len Galindo Soria, Andrea Guariso, Ali Hasanain, Sofía Jaramillo, Sellu Kallon, Anthony Kamwesigye, Arjun Kharel, Sarah Kreps, Madison Levine, Rebecca Littman, Mohammad Malik, Gisele Manirabaruta, Jean Léodomir Habarimana Mfura, Fatoma Momoh, Alberto Mucauque, Imamo Mussa, Jean Aime Nsabimana, Isaac Obara, María Juliana Otálora, Béchir Wendemi Ouédraogo, Touba Bakary Pare, Melina R. Platas, Laura Polanco, Javaeria Ashraf Qureshi, Mariam Raheem, Vasudha Ramakrishna, Ismail Rendrá, Taimur Shah, Sarene Eyla Shaked, Jacob N. Shapiro, Jakob Svensson, Ahsan Tariq, Achille Mignondo Tchibozo, Hamid Ali Tiwana, Bhartendu Trivedi, Corey Vernot, Pedro C. Vicente, Laurin B. Weissinger, Basit Zafar, Baobao Zhang, Dean Karlan, Michael Callen, Matthieu Teachout, Macartan Humphreys, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Saad B. Omer

Abstract

Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving sufficient immunization coverage to end the global pandemic, yet few studies have investigated COVID-19 vaccination attitudes in lower-income countries, where large-scale vaccination is just beginning. We analyze COVID-19 vaccine acceptance across 15 survey samples covering 10 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia, Africa and South America, Russia (an upper-middle-income country) and the United States, including a total of 44,260 individuals. We find considerably higher willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine in our LMIC samples (mean 80.3%; median 78%; range 30.1 percentage points) compared with the United States (mean 64.6%) and Russia (mean 30.4%). Vaccine acceptance in LMICs is primarily explained by an interest in personal protection against COVID-19, while concern about side effects is the most common reason for hesitancy. Health workers are the most trusted sources of guidance about COVID-19 vaccines. Evidence from this sample of LMICs suggests that prioritizing vaccine distribution to the Global South should yield high returns in advancing global immunization coverage. Vaccination campaigns should focus on translating the high levels of stated acceptance into actual uptake. Messages highlighting vaccine efficacy and safety, delivered by healthcare workers, could be effective for addressing any remaining hesitancy in the analyzed LMICs.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 1,017 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 1,103 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 1103 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 118 11%
Student > Bachelor 98 9%
Researcher 94 9%
Student > Ph. D. Student 69 6%
Other 51 5%
Other 171 16%
Unknown 502 46%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 160 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 93 8%
Social Sciences 69 6%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 31 3%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 25 2%
Other 184 17%
Unknown 541 49%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1412. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 March 2024.
All research outputs
#8,844
of 25,595,500 outputs
Outputs from Nature Medicine
#112
of 9,384 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#436
of 446,737 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Medicine
#8
of 104 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,595,500 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 9,384 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 105.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 446,737 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 104 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.