Willingness to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccination and the Psychological State of Japanese University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Shogo Tsutsumi, Noriaki Maeda, Tsubasa Tashiro, Satoshi Arima, Rami Mizuta, Kazuki Fukui, Koichi Naito, Makoto Komiya and Yukio Urabe
Additional contact information
Shogo Tsutsumi: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Noriaki Maeda: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Tsubasa Tashiro: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Satoshi Arima: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Rami Mizuta: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Kazuki Fukui: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Koichi Naito: Department of Health Science, Nagoya Women’s University, Nagoya 467-8610, Japan
Makoto Komiya: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan
Yukio Urabe: Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-10

Abstract: Vaccinations may be one of the solutions to end the COVID-19 pandemic. One’s psychological state may be strongly related to one’s willingness to be vaccinated. This study investigated the relationship between the psychological state of Japanese university students and their willingness to be vaccinated. A self-report questionnaire on COVID-19, its vaccines (vaccination status, and perceived efficacy and safety), and psychological state (anxiety and depressive mood) was administered online, and 560 valid responses were obtained. The unvaccinated group reported significantly lower perceived vaccine effectiveness and importance than the vaccinated group. However, there were no differences in anxiety and depressive mood symptoms between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed on the unvaccinated participants to identify the factors associated with their unwillingness to be vaccinated; there was a significant association between anxiety and unwillingness to receive the vaccine ( p < 0.05). However, there was no significant association between depressive mood and unwillingness to receive the vaccine. The results suggest that timely psychological support for Japanese university students experiencing high levels of anxiety is important in accelerating vaccination programs.

Keywords: coronavirus disease; COVID-19; vaccine; university student; psychological distress; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1654/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1654/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1654-:d:739835

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().