IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02598-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pro-religion attitude predicts lower vaccination coverage at country level

Author

Listed:
  • Zhe-Fei Mao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Ghent University)

  • Qi-Wei Li

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yi-Ming Wang

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jie Zhou

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to address vaccine coverage inequality. Despite calls from scientists and national organizations, progress in ensuring equitable access to vaccines has been slow. This study aims to reveal the COVID-19 vaccine coverage inequality and investigate the predictive effect of attitudes toward science and religion on real-word vaccination uptake. We draw on three high-quality, large-scale databases to unveil real-world vaccine coverage, which stood at an average of 53% of the population by mid-2022. The vaccination rate varies based on a country’s income, with higher-income nations having higher vaccination rates and faster vaccination speed. Regression models and a multiverse analysis reveal that both country-level attitudes towards science and religion, as well as religious faith, are linked to vaccination rate at the country level. Countries where a higher proportion of the population prioritize religious beliefs over scientific evidence when the two come into conflict tend to have lower vaccination coverage rates and slower vaccination speeds. These findings suggest that scientists and policymakers must take into account social and cultural characteristics of populations when addressing vaccine inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhe-Fei Mao & Qi-Wei Li & Yi-Ming Wang & Jie Zhou, 2024. "Pro-religion attitude predicts lower vaccination coverage at country level," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02598-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02598-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02598-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02598-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nie, Yanyi & Zhong, Xiaoni & Lin, Tao & Wang, Wei, 2022. "Homophily in competing behavior spreading among the heterogeneous population with higher-order interactions," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 432(C).
    2. Edouard Mathieu & Hannah Ritchie & Esteban Ortiz-Ospina & Max Roser & Joe Hasell & Cameron Appel & Charlie Giattino & Lucas Rodés-Guirao, 2021. "A global database of COVID-19 vaccinations," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(7), pages 947-953, July.
    3. Uri Simonsohn & Joseph P. Simmons & Leif D. Nelson, 2020. "Specification curve analysis," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1208-1214, November.
    4. Eyal Lahav & Shosh Shahrabani & Mosi Rosenboim & Yoshiro Tsutsui, 2022. "Is stronger religious faith associated with a greater willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine? Evidence from Israel and Japan," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 687-703, June.
    5. Patrick Sturgis & Ian Brunton-Smith & Jonathan Jackson, 2021. "Trust in science, social consensus and vaccine confidence," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(11), pages 1528-1534, November.
    6. Uri Simonsohn & Joseph P. Simmons & Leif D. Nelson, 2020. "Publisher Correction: Specification curve analysis," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1215-1215, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eibich, Peter & Goldzahl, Léontine, 2021. "Does retirement affect secondary preventive care use? Evidence from breast cancer screening," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    2. Rubin, Mark, 2023. "Type I error rates are not usually inflated," MetaArXiv 3kv2b, Center for Open Science.
    3. Dreber, Anna & Johannesson, Magnus, 2023. "A framework for evaluating reproducibility and replicability in economics," Ruhr Economic Papers 1055, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Dorison, Charles A & Lerner, Jennifer S & Heller, Blake H & Rothman, Alexander J & Kawachi, Ichiro I & Wang, Ke & Rees, Vaughan W & Gill, Brian P & Gibbs, Nancy & Ebersole, Charles R & Vally, Zahir & , 2022. "In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits : Experimental evidence from 84 countries," Other publications TiSEM 235f67b6-6be5-4061-8693-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten RatSWD (ed.), 2023. "Erhebung und Nutzung unstrukturierter Daten in den Sozial-, Verhaltens- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften," RatSWD Output Series, German Data Forum (RatSWD), volume 7, number 7-2de.
    6. Gretton, Jeremy & Roemer, Tobias & Schlüter, Elmar, 2024. "Replication of Hamel & Wilcox-Archuleta (2022): "Black Workers in White Places: Daytime Racial Diversity and White Public Opinion"," I4R Discussion Paper Series 61, The Institute for Replication (I4R), revised 2024.
    7. Fieberg, Christian & Günther, Steffen & Poddig, Thorsten & Zaremba, Adam, 2024. "Non-standard errors in the cryptocurrency world," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. Helmers, Viola & van der Werf, Edwin, 2022. "Did the German Aviation Tax Affect Passenger Numbers? New Evidence Employing Difference-in-differences," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264118, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Tran, Nhan, 2024. "Parents' legal status and children's health insurance: Evidence from DACA," MPRA Paper 120173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Huber, Christoph & Kirchler, Michael, 2023. "Experiments in finance: A survey of historical trends," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    11. Slichter, David & Tran, Nhan, 2023. "Do better journals publish better estimates?," MPRA Paper 118433, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Bachler, Sebastian & Erhart, Andrea & Holzknecht, Armando, 2023. "Replication Report on Altmann et al. (2022)," I4R Discussion Paper Series 43, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    13. Nikolova, Milena & Cnossen, Femke & Nikolaev. Boris, 2022. "Robots, Meaning, and Self-Determination," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1191, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    14. Cohn, Jonathan B. & Liu, Zack & Wardlaw, Malcolm I., 2022. "Count (and count-like) data in finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 529-551.
    15. Guillaume Coqueret, 2023. "Forking paths in financial economics," Papers 2401.08606, arXiv.org.
    16. Felix Holzmeister & Magnus Johannesson & Robert Böhm & Anna Dreber & Jürgen Huber & Michael Kirchler, 2023. "Heterogeneity in effect size estimates: Empirical evidence and practical implications," Working Papers 2023-17, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    17. Alan D. Crane & Andrew Koch & Leming Lin, 2024. "Real Effects of Markets on Politics: Evidence from US Presidential Elections," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 73-88, March.
    18. Christoph Semken & David Rossell, 2022. "Specification analysis for technology use and teenager well‐being: Statistical validity and a Bayesian proposal," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1330-1355, November.
    19. Brian Gill & others, "undated". "In COVID-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence from 84 Countries," Mathematica Policy Research Reports ac30d0619fd64793b2e1b108d, Mathematica Policy Research.
    20. Bensch, Gunther & Ankel-Peters, Jörg & Vance, Colin, 2023. "Spotlight on Researcher Decisions – Infrastructure Evaluation, Instrumental Variables, and Specification Screening," VfS Annual Conference 2023 (Regensburg): Growth and the "sociale Frage" 277703, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02598-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.