Vaccine hesitancy prospectively predicts nocebo side-effects following COVID-19 vaccination

© 2022. The Author(s)..

The directionality between vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine side-effects has not been hitherto examined. We hypothesized a nocebo effect, whereby vaccine hesitancy towards the second Pfizer vaccination dose predicts subsequent side-effects for a booster dose, beyond other effects. We expected these nocebo effects to be driven by (mis)information in males and prior experience in females. A representative sample of older adults (n = 756, mean age = 68.9 ± 3.43) were questioned in a typical cross-lagged design (wave 1 following a second Pfizer dose, wave 2 after their booster). As hypothesized, earlier vaccine hesitancy predicted subsequent booster side-effects for females (β = 0.10 p = 0.025, f 2 = 0.02) and males (β = 0.34, p < 0.001, f 2 = 0.16); effects were stronger in males (χ2Δ (1) = 4.34, p = 0.03). The (W1-to-W2) side-effect autoregression was stronger in females (β = .34, p < 0.001; males β = 0.18, p < 0.001), χ2Δ (1) = 26.86, p < 0.001. Results show that a quantifiable and meaningful portion of COVID-19 vaccine side-effects is predicted by vaccine hesitancy, demonstrating that side-effects comprise a psychosomatic nocebo component in vaccinated individuals. The data reveal distinct risk levels for future side-effects, suggesting the need to tailor public health messaging.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:12

Enthalten in:

Scientific reports - 12(2022), 1 vom: 05. Dez., Seite 20018

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Hoffman, Yaakov S G [VerfasserIn]
Levin, Yafit [VerfasserIn]
Palgi, Yuval [VerfasserIn]
Goodwin, Robin [VerfasserIn]
Ben-Ezra, Menachem [VerfasserIn]
Greenblatt-Kimron, Lee [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

COVID-19 Vaccines
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 07.12.2022

Date Revised 10.01.2023

published: Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1038/s41598-022-21434-7

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM349833710