Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes during the start of COVID-19 vaccination program: A content analysis on twitter data

Küçükali, Hüseyin; Ataç, Ömer; Palteki, Ayşe Seval; Tokaç, Ayşe Zülal; Hayran, Osman

Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes during the start of COVID-19 vaccination program: A content analysis on twitter data

dc.authorid	0000-0003-1669-3107
dc.authorid	0000-0001-8984-9673
dc.authorid	0000-0002-6593-7000
dc.authorid	0000-0002-9235-5647
dc.authorid	0000-0002-9994-5033
dc.contributor.author	Küçükali, Hüseyin
dc.contributor.author	Ataç, Ömer
dc.contributor.author	Palteki, Ayşe Seval
dc.contributor.author	Tokaç, Ayşe Zülal
dc.contributor.author	Hayran, Osman
dc.date.accessioned	2022-03-10T06:05:46Z
dc.date.available	2022-03-10T06:05:46Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.department	İstanbul Medipol Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Dahili Tıp Bilimleri Bölümü, Halk Sağlığı Ana Bilim Dalı
dc.description.abstract	Twitter is a useful source for detecting anti-vaccine content due to the increasing prevalence of these arguments on social media. We aimed to identify the prominent themes about vaccine hesitancy and refusal on social media posts in Turkish during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, we collected public tweets (n = 551,245) that contained a vaccine-related keyword and had been published between 9 December 2020 and 8 January 2021 through the Twitter API. A random sample of tweets (n = 1041) was selected and analyzed by four researchers with the content analysis method. We found that 90.5% of the tweets were about vaccines, 22.6% (n = 213) of the tweets mentioned at least one COVID-19 vaccine by name, and the most frequently mentioned COVID-19 vaccine was CoronaVac (51.2%). We found that 22.0% (n = 207) of the tweets included at least one anti-vaccination theme. Poor scientific processes (21.7%), conspiracy theories (16.4%), and suspicions towards manufacturers (15.5%) were the most frequently mentioned themes. The most co-occurring themes were "poor scientific process" with "suspicion towards manufacturers" (n = 9), and "suspicion towards health authorities" (n = 5). This study may be helpful for health managers, assisting them to identify the major concerns of the population and organize preventive measures through the significant role of social media in early spread of information about vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes.
dc.identifier.citation	Küçükali, H., Ataç, Ö., Palteki, A. S., Tokaç, A. Z. ve Hayran, O. (2022). Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes during the start of COVID-19 vaccination program: A content analysis on twitter data. Vaccines, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10020161
dc.identifier.doi	10.3390/vaccines10020161
dc.identifier.issn	2076-393X
dc.identifier.issue	2
dc.identifier.pmid	35214620
dc.identifier.scopus	2-s2.0-85123238454
dc.identifier.scopusquality	Q1
dc.identifier.uri	https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10020161
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12511/9107
dc.identifier.volume	10
dc.identifier.wos	000762009800001	en_US
dc.identifier.wosquality	Q2
dc.indekslendigikaynak	Web of Science
dc.indekslendigikaynak	Scopus
dc.indekslendigikaynak	PubMed
dc.institutionauthor	Küçükali, Hüseyin
dc.institutionauthor	Ataç, Ömer
dc.institutionauthor	Palteki, Ayşe Seval
dc.institutionauthor	Tokaç, Ayşe Zülal
dc.institutionauthor	Hayran, Osman
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	MDPI
dc.relation.ispartof	Vaccines	en_US
dc.relation.publicationcategory	Makale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi - Kurum Öğretim Elemanı
dc.rights	Attribution 4.0 International	*
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.subject	COVID-19
dc.subject	Vaccines
dc.subject	Vaccine Hesitancy
dc.subject	Twitter
dc.subject	Social Media
dc.subject	Content Analysis
dc.title	Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination attitudes during the start of COVID-19 vaccination program: A content analysis on twitter data
dc.type	Article