Relationship Between Fear of COVID-19, Conspiracy Beliefs About Vaccines and Intention to Vaccinate Against COVID-19: A Cross-National Indirect Effect Model in 13 Latin American Countries

Caycho-Rodríguez T.; Tomás J.M.; Yupanqui-Lorenzo D.E.; Valencia P.D.; Carbajal-León C.; Vilca L.W.; Ventura-León J.; Paredes-Angeles R.; Arias Gallegos W.L.; Reyes-Bossio M.; Delgado-Campusano M.; Gallegos M.; Rojas-Jara C.; Polanco-Carrasco R.; Cervigni M.; Martino P.; Lobos-Rivera M.E.; Moreta-Herrera R.; Palacios Segura D.A.; Samaniego-Pinho A.; Buschiazzo Figares A.; Puerta-Cortés D.X.; Camargo A.; Torales J.; Monge Blanco J.A.; González P.; Smith-Castro V.; Petzold-Rodriguez O.; Corrales-Reyes I.E.; Calderón R.; Matute Rivera W.Y.; Ferrufino-Borja D.; Ceballos-Vásquez P.; Muñoz-del-Carpio-Toia A.; Palacios J.; Burgos-Videla C.; Florez León A.M.E.; Vergara I.; Vega D.; Shulmeyer M.K.; Barria-Asenjo N.A.; Urrutia Rios H.T.; Lira Lira A.E. · Evaluation and the Health Professions (2023) · DOI: 10.1177/01632787231186621

Resumen

The present study explored the predictive capacity of fear of COVID-19 on the intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and the influence in this relationship of conspiracy beliefs as a possible mediating psychological variable, in 13 Latin American countries. A total of 5779 people recruited through non-probabilistic convenience sampling participated. To collect information, we used the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Vaccine conspiracy beliefs Scale-COVID-19 and a single item of intention to vaccinate. A full a priori Structural Equation Model was used; whereas, cross-country invariance was performed from increasingly restricted structural models. The results indicated that, fear of COVID-19 positively predicts intention to vaccinate and the presence of conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines. The latter negatively predicted intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Besides, conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines had an indirect effect on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19 in the 13 countries assessed. Finally, the cross-national similarities of the mediational model among the 13 participating countries are strongly supported. The study is the first to test a cross-national mediational model across variables in a large number of Latin American countries. However, further studies with other countries in other regions of the world are needed. © The Author(s) 2023.

Instituciones: Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia; Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas; Universidad Científica del Sur; Universidad Católica de Santa María; Universidad Privada Norbert Wiener; Universidad Privada del Norte; Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades; Universidad Católica San Pablo