Validation of the vaccine conspiracy beliefs scale

Background: Parents’ vaccine attitudes influence their decision regarding child vaccination. To date, no study has evaluated the impact of vaccine conspiracy beliefs on human papillomavirus vaccine acceptance. The authors assessed the validity of a Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (VCBS) and determined whether this scale was associated with parents’ willingness to vaccinate their son with the HPV vaccine. Methods: Canadian parents completed a 24-min online survey in 2014. Measures included socio-demographic variables, HPV knowledge, health care provider recommendation, Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), the seven-item VCBS, and parents’ willingness to vaccinate their son at two price points. Results: A total of 1427 Canadian parents completed the survey in English (61.2%) or French (38.8%). A Factor Analysis revealed the VCBS is one-dimensional and has high internal consistency (α=0.937). The construct validity of the VCBS was supported by a moderate relationship with the CMQ (r=0.44, p<0.001). Hierarchical regression analyses found the VCBS is negatively related to parents’ willingness to vaccinate their son with the HPV vaccine at both price points (‘free’ or ‘$300′) after controlling for gender, age, household income, education level, HPV knowledge, and health care provider recommendation. Conclusions: The VCBS is a brief, valid scale that will be useful in further elucidating the correlates of vaccine hesitancy. Future research could use the VCBS to evaluate the impact of vaccine conspiracies beliefs on vaccine uptake and how concerns about vaccination may be challenged and reversed. Keywords: Cancer prevention, Conspiracy beliefs, Human papillomavirus, Vaccine hesitancy, Vaccines, Vaccine Conspiracy Belief Scale

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

• Low COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Is Correlated with Conspiracy Beliefs among University Students in Jordan · 2021

• Effects of different types of written vaccination information on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): a single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial · 2021

• High Rates of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Its Association with Conspiracy Beliefs: A Study in Jordan and Kuwait among Other Arab Countries · 2021

• COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK: the Oxford coronavirus explanations, attitudes, and narratives survey (Oceans) II · 2020

• Beyond confidence: Development of a measure assessing the 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination · 2018

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.