Vaccination homophily in ego contact networks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: Vaccine hesitancy is an inevitable risk for societies as it contributes to outbreaks of diseases. Prior research suggests that vaccination decisions of individuals tend to spread within social networks, resulting in a tendency to vaccination homophily. The clustering of individuals resistant to vaccination can substantially make the threshold necessary to achieve herd immunity harder to reach. In this study, we examined the extent of vaccination homophily among social contacts and its association with vaccine uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary using a contact diary approach in two cross-sectional surveys. The results indicate strong clustering among both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. The most powerful predictor of vaccine uptake was the perceived vaccination rate within t

SUBMITTER: Stefkovics A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11226437 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature