Exploring the influencing factors of COVID-19 vaccination willingness: A mixed-method study in China

The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused enormous damage to individuals’ normal life and society’s development. Recently, with the emergence of novel coronavirus variants, people around the world are still under the attack of COVID-19. And vaccine uptake is considered one of the most effective methods to defend against this epidemic. However, many people hold hesitant attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine. For the vaccination promotion work, it is important to find out what factors would influence the intention of vaccination. With the aim of practical use, this study identifies two main themes of this factor structure, that is, non-manipulable factors and manipulable factors. This study uses semi-structured interviews to explore the influencing factors related to vaccination willingness. For the interview results analysis, this study employs a mixed-method, which combines qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative topic modeling. The thematic analysis identifies nine key factors and topic modeling identifies seven key factors. After gathering and discussing these key factors, this study confirmed ten key factors as final factors. More specifically, non-manipulable factors contain Effectiveness and safety of vaccines and Vaccine feasibility, and manipulable factors include Convenience of vaccine, Responsibility, External reference, Necessity and urgency of vaccination uptake, Perceived threat, Perceived benefits, Scientific and objective expression, and Policy requirement. This study investigates key influencing factors that would affect public vaccination intentions in China and provides specific guidelines for vaccination promotion for authorities and public health workers.