National prevalence and socioeconomic factors associated with the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in South Korea: a large-scale representative study in 2021

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Among the global efforts toward preventing the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are a pivotal factor in ending the pandem-ic. Thus, through a large-scale population-based study, we investigated the individual-, social-, and family-associated factors affecting the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in South Korea. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data were ob-tained from a nationwide representative study (Korea Community Health) conducted in 2021. To determine the individual-, social-, and fam-ily-associated variables for COVID-19 vacci-nation acceptance, we investigated data from 225,319 individuals. RESULTS: In the total sample (n=225,319), 184,529 COVID-19-vaccinated people and 40,790 non-vaccinated people were evaluated. The fac-tors related to the acceptance of COVID-19 vac-cination were significantly associated with the demographic factors, namely, older age group, female sex, and a history of influenza vaccina-tion, as well as medical conditions such as dia-betes, hypertension, and depression. Socioeco-nomic conditions influencing the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination were significantly asso-ciated with low-income families and blue-collar workers. Health-related risk factors were high in the obese group. However, a noteworthy nega-tive association was found between the accep-tance of vaccination and smoking habits and al-cohol consumption. Conversely, a positive as-sociation was observed between academic lev-el and vaccination acceptance. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that old age, female sex, a history of influ-enza vaccination, medical conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, and depression, low-income families, blue-collar workers, and health-related risk factors, such as obesi-ty, were associated with the acceptance ofCOVID-19 vaccination. Additionally, a high ac-ademic level, absence of smoking habits, and non-current alcohol use were positively asso-ciated with vaccine acceptance.