The Development and Preliminary Application of the Chinese Version of the COVID-19 Vaccine Literacy Scale

Yihui Li, Yi Guo, Xusheng Wu, Qingyuan Hu () and Dehua Hu ()
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Yihui Li: Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China
Yi Guo: Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China
Xusheng Wu: Shenzhen Health Development Research and Data Management Center, Shenzhen 518000, China
Qingyuan Hu: Xiangya III Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China
Dehua Hu: Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410013, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-17

Abstract: (1) Background: Vaccine literacy (VL) of the public is crucial to deal with anti-vaccination rhetoric. This study aims to (1) develop a Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Literacy Scale and examine the factor structure and psychometric characteristics, and (2) explore the association between COVID-19 VL and sociodemographic characteristics and other variables; (2) Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among 362 Chinese residents from 23 May 2022 to 31 May 2022 using snowball sampling; (3) Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the scale of 15 items, consisting of three factors, functional, interactive and critical vaccine literacy, explained 63.3% of the total variance. Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.885 for the overall scale: 0.838, 0.891, and 0.857 for three subscales, respectively. The results showed a medium level of vaccine literacy (M = 3.71, SD = 0.72) and significant differences among functional, interactive, and critical vaccine literacy ( p < 0.001). The level of vaccine literacy grew with the level of education ( p < 0.001) and age ( p = 0.049). Men, participants who were single, or those living in rural areas had a lower level of vaccine literacy; (4) Conclusions: The Chinese COVID-19 VL Scale has adequate validity and reliability for assessing vaccine literacy among Chinese residents. A deep understanding of the factors that affect vaccine literacy is needed.

Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine literacy; scale; vaccination; Chinese; general public (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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