Mental distress, COVID19 vaccine distrust and vaccine hesitancy in South Africa: A causal mediation regression analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

Within the context of increasing mental distress noted since the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, the study aims at analysing the relationship between mental health, vaccine distrust and vaccine hesitancy in South Africa.

Subject and methods

The study uses nationally representative panel data of 3241 individuals interviewed prior to and during the COVID19 pandemic. The study uses a range of regression techniques including logit, mediation and gradient-boosted causal mediation models to identify the causal relationship while accounting for selection bias.

Results

The results of multivariate logit regression reveal that vaccine distrust is the most important predictor of vaccine hesitancy [Coeff: 3.420, CI 3.122, 3.717]. Mental distress is not found to be a signif

SUBMITTER: Kollamparambil U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10038254 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature