NCU study: social media usage predicts vaccination status
Published:Saturday | January 15, 2022 | 12:05 AM
Social media platforms have played a significant role in influencing the decisions of the Jamaican people about whether to take COVID-19 vaccines, with four in 10 (43.4 per cent) vaccinated persons indicating that social media usage influenced their decision to take or not to take the vaccines, according to a recent study by Northern Caribbean University (NCU).
WhatsApp users were the largest (30.9 per cent) among the 1,039 respondents who indicated that they used social media. Instagram users were the second largest (24.6 per cent) followed by Facebook (13.1 per cent), Twitter (12.5 per cent), TikTok (9.6 per cent) and Snapchat (3.3 per cent).
The data also revealed that WhatsApp users were more likely to be vaccinated, having received at least the first dose. However, respondents who favoured Instagram were less likely to be vaccinated. Further analysis of the data revealed that vaccinated respondents, or participants who had received their first dosage, were most likely to demonstrate very high social media usage.
According to the findings, respondents who spent less time on social media were more likely to be unvaccinated, while those who spent more time on social media were more likely to be vaccinated as follows:
• 15.6 per cent of respondents with a low social media usage were fully vaccinated.
• 23.8 per cent of those with a moderate social media usage were fully vaccinated.
• 32.2 per cent of those with a high social media usage were fully vaccinated.
• 62.6 per cent of those with a very high social media usage were fully vaccinated.
“Social media usage among Jamaicans is appreciatively high, averaging about two-thirds of the people surveyed,” said lead researcher Paul Andrew Bourne. “Social media play a significant role in the lowering of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Jamaicans, as well as the traditional media (television),” he added.
The NCU study concluded that social media provide reliable up-to-date scientific information regarding COVID-19 vaccination protocols and must be utilised accordingly by governmental agencies to help people make decisions regarding vaccination acceptance.
GROWING AWARENESS
The study found there was a high degree of awareness of the COVID-19 vaccination programme with caution, since the possibility also exists for the spreading of misleading and erroneous information using identical social media platforms.
The study, titled Is the Degree of Social Media Usage Influencing COVID-19 Vaccinations in Jamaica?, was conducted from September to November 2021 across the fourteen parishes using a 3 per cent margin of error.
The study was conducted against concerns by national health agencies that social media were negatively impacting the COVID-19 education campaigns. The researchers noted that United States President Joe Biden asserted in July 2021 that social media platforms were “killing people” with misinformation regarding COVID-19.