PhD Scientific Days 2025

Health Sciences II.

Coronavirus-related Health Literacy and its Association to Vaccine Acceptance in Hungary

Name of the presenter

Mátyás Gabriella

Institute/workplace of the presenter

Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen; Doctoral School of Health Sciences, University of Debrecen

Authors

Gabriella Mátyás^1,2, Yusuf Elisha Karu^1,3, Ferenc Vincze¹, Róza Ádány^1,4,5,6, Éva Bíró¹

1: Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
2: Doctoral School of Health Sciences, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
3: International and Private Care, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, United Kingdom
4: HUN-REN-UD Public Health Research Group, Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
5: National Laboratory for Health Security, Center for Epidemiology and Surveillance, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
6: Department of Public Health, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

Text of the abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus-related health literacy is necessary to deal with health information related to the pandemic. Vaccination is efficient in preventing severe illness and mortality associated with the coronavirus disease. Coronavirus-related health literacy can enhance vaccine acceptance.
Aims: We aimed to assess the level of coronavirus-related health literacy, identify its determinants, and examine the relationship between coronavirus-related health literacy and vaccine acceptance among a sample of adults in the Hungarian population.
Methods: In 2022, in a cross-sectional study, 1200 Hungarian adults over 18 years were participated in a probability sample stratified by age, sex, educational attainment, and type of settlement. A polling company collected the data through computer-assisted personal interviews, which included items on socio-demographics, health status, vaccine acceptance, and coronavirus-related health literacy. The determinants of coronavirus-related health literacy and its association with vaccine acceptance were investigated by binary logistic regression.
Result: Nearly half of the sample (43.6%) had a sufficient level of coronavirus-related health literacy. Sufficient level of coronavirus-related health literacy is linked to being female, having a tertiary level education, and being above the average level of social status. A sufficient level of coronavirus-related health literacy, tertiary level education, and fair health status positively correlate with vaccine acceptance. Vaccine acceptance is lower among those who are living in smaller cities or villages and are unemployed.
Conclusion: Positive correlation was found between coronavirus-related health literacy and vaccine acceptance. Hence, vaccine acceptance has a negative correlation with unemployment, urban and rural residency; we suggest programs aimed at those groups to enhance vaccine acceptance.
Funding: The work was supported by the Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary (IV/956-4/2020/EKF). This paper was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BO/00933/22/5). This project was also financed by the HUN-REN Research Network (TKCS-2021/32). RÁ also works as team member of the National Laboratory for Health Security Hungary (RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00006) supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH).