Trust in government vaccine recommendations during the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore: A longitudinal survey study

IF 4.5 3区医学 Q2 IMMUNOLOGY

Vaccine Pub Date : 2025-01-25 DOI:10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126643

Anita Sheldenkar , Tng Pei Ling , Peter Johannes Schulz , Mark I-Cheng Chen , May Oo Lwin

{"title":"Trust in government vaccine recommendations during the Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore: A longitudinal survey study","authors":"Anita Sheldenkar , Tng Pei Ling , Peter Johannes Schulz , Mark I-Cheng Chen , May Oo Lwin","doi":"10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.126643","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Trust in governments has been decreasing in recent years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, where low-trust societies showed reduced compliance with disease control measures. Few studies have examined how trust in authorities changed over the pandemic. This study investigated the trajectory of public trust in the Singapore government's vaccine recommendations during this period.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>1138 participants completed three online surveys between June 2021 and April 2022. Variables included traditional and online media use, sense of duty to follow government recommendations, self-efficacy in protecting oneself without vaccination, perceived vaccine benefits and trust in government vaccine advice. Growth models were used to examine trends in trust over time.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Trust in government vaccine advice decreased during the pandemic. Traditional media use was positively related to trust in government while online media use showed a negative association.</div><div>Respondents who viewed following government vaccine recommendations as their choice were less likely to trust the government longitudinally than those who perceived it as their duty. Traditional media users who viewed following advice as their duty had the highest trust across time, while the lowest trust was observed for online media users who viewed following recommendations as their choice.</div><div>While respondents with higher self-efficacy in protecting against Covid-19 without vaccination showed less trust in the government initially, they showed a smaller decrease in trust over time than those with lower self-efficacy. Stronger beliefs in vaccine benefits were associated with slower decrease in trust over time.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>This is one of the first studies to investigate government trust longitudinally in Asia during a crisis. Findings indicate that governments of high-trust societies cannot be complacent during health crises. Messaging strategies that cultivate civic mindedness may promote positive vaccination beliefs and government trust. More attention should be paid to mitigating effects of online media information-seeking on government trust during crises.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":23491,"journal":{"name":"Vaccine","volume":"45 ","pages":"Article 126643"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Vaccine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X24013252","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Trust in governments has been decreasing in recent years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, where low-trust societies showed reduced compliance with disease control measures. Few studies have examined how trust in authorities changed over the pandemic. This study investigated the trajectory of public trust in the Singapore government's vaccine recommendations during this period.

Methods

1138 participants completed three online surveys between June 2021 and April 2022. Variables included traditional and online media use, sense of duty to follow government recommendations, self-efficacy in protecting oneself without vaccination, perceived vaccine benefits and trust in government vaccine advice. Growth models were used to examine trends in trust over time.

Results

Trust in government vaccine advice decreased during the pandemic. Traditional media use was positively related to trust in government while online media use showed a negative association.

Respondents who viewed following government vaccine recommendations as their choice were less likely to trust the government longitudinally than those who perceived it as their duty. Traditional media users who viewed following advice as their duty had the highest trust across time, while the lowest trust was observed for online media users who viewed following recommendations as their choice.

While respondents with higher self-efficacy in protecting against Covid-19 without vaccination showed less trust in the government initially, they showed a smaller decrease in trust over time than those with lower self-efficacy. Stronger beliefs in vaccine benefits were associated with slower decrease in trust over time.

Conclusions

This is one of the first studies to investigate government trust longitudinally in Asia during a crisis. Findings indicate that governments of high-trust societies cannot be complacent during health crises. Messaging strategies that cultivate civic mindedness may promote positive vaccination beliefs and government trust. More attention should be paid to mitigating effects of online media information-seeking on government trust during crises.

查看原文本刊更多论文

在新加坡Covid-19大流行期间对政府疫苗建议的信任：一项纵向调查研究。

背景：近年来，特别是在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间，对政府的信任度一直在下降，低信任度的社会对疾病控制措施的遵守程度有所下降。很少有研究调查人们对当局的信任在疫情期间发生了怎样的变化。本研究调查了公众在此期间对新加坡政府疫苗建议的信任轨迹。方法：1138名参与者在2021年6月至2022年4月期间完成了三次在线调查。变量包括传统和在线媒体的使用、遵循政府建议的责任感、不接种疫苗保护自己的自我效能、对疫苗益处的感知以及对政府疫苗建议的信任。增长模型被用来检验信任随时间的变化趋势。结果：大流行期间对政府疫苗建议的信任度下降。传统媒体使用与政府信任正相关，网络媒体使用与政府信任负相关。那些认为遵循政府疫苗建议是他们选择的受访者比那些认为这是他们责任的人更不可能长期信任政府。将遵循建议视为职责的传统媒体用户信任度最高，而将遵循建议视为选择的网络媒体用户信任度最低。虽然在不接种疫苗的情况下保护Covid-19的自我效能较高的受访者最初对政府的信任度较低，但随着时间的推移，他们对政府的信任度下降幅度小于自我效能较低的受访者。随着时间的推移，对疫苗益处的信念越强，信任度下降的速度越慢。结论：这是首次对亚洲危机期间政府信任进行纵向调查的研究之一。调查结果表明，在卫生危机期间，高度信任社会的政府不能自满。培养公民意识的信息传递策略可以促进积极的疫苗接种信念和政府信任。危机中网络媒体信息寻求对政府信任的影响应得到更多的关注。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Vaccine 医学-免疫学

CiteScore

8.70

自引率

5.50%

发文量

992

审稿时长

131 days

期刊介绍： Vaccine is unique in publishing the highest quality science across all disciplines relevant to the field of vaccinology - all original article submissions across basic and clinical research, vaccine manufacturing, history, public policy, behavioral science and ethics, social sciences, safety, and many other related areas are welcomed. The submission categories as given in the Guide for Authors indicate where we receive the most papers. Papers outside these major areas are also welcome and authors are encouraged to contact us with specific questions.