Background: Vaccine hesitancy is an issue for vaccines required for herd immunity. Although various factors such as sociodemographics can affect vaccine hesitancy, the research results differ and it is unclear whether these differences depend on the subjects or the situation, such as the type of infection or vaccine. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between seasonal influenza vaccination behavior and sociodemographic factors under the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we analyzed the relationship between individual factors of risk preference and seasonal influenza vaccination on the premise that there is a difference in the association between efficacy and the risk of side effects of the two vaccines. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on workers aged from 20-65 years on December 22-25, 2020, using data from an Internet survey. We set the presence or absence of 2020/2021 seasonal influenza vaccination as the dependent variable, and each aspect of sociodemographic factors and risk preference as independent variables. We performed a multilevel logistic regression analysis nested by residence. Results: In total, 26,637 respondents (13,600 men, 13,037 women) participated. Significantly more women than men were vaccinated. Both men and women had higher vaccination rates if married, highly educated, with high income, and with underlying disease. Men aged 60-65 had a significantly higher vaccination rate than those aged 20-29, while women aged 40-49 and 50-59 had a significantly lower rate than those aged 20-29. These results differed from those of a previous study on the vaccination intentions of the same subjects for COVID-19. Those with low risk preference had higher vaccination rates than those with high risk preference. Conclusions: Our results suggested that the effect of sociodemographic factors on vaccine hesitancy depends on the situation affecting efficacy of the vaccine and the perception of vaccination risk.
How are sociodemographic factors and risk preferences associated with seasonal influenza vaccination behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic?