Clemens, K.S., Faasse, K., Tan, W. et al. (6 more authors) (2023) Social communication pathways to COVID-19 vaccine side-effect expectations and experience. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 164. 111081. ISSN 0022-3999
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 Elsevier Inc. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | COVID-19; Vaccine; Media; Side-effects; Nocebo; Expectations |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 Dec 2022 15:18 |
Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2023 01:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2022.111081 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:193965 |
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Filename: Social communication pathways to covid19 accepted article.PDF
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0