The effect of social media on vaccination hindrance during Covid-۱۹ pandemic; A cross-sectional study

Introduction: Nowadays, social media play a key role in all aspects of human life. Despite all advantages that come with this popular technology, all individuals are free to release their own opinion around any topic regardless their scientific and accuracy values. In addition to that, new platforms of social media such as Instagram has potential to reach large audiences and spread information very rapidly so that vaccine contents either supportive or dissident, are widely present across social media platforms that can influence the acceptance rate of vaccination among people. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the direct or indirect impacts of social media on vaccination that is to be the survivor of human being in current pandemic.Method: The present study was an observational, content analyzing study. Content categories were established using fact sheets from the Centers for Disease Control Covid-۱۹ index page. Important content categories were created and the resultant coding sheet was used to analyze posts from the hashtag #Covid-۱۹ in both Kurdish and Arabic spelling as common spoken languages of Iraq.Results: Of the ۲۵۰ posts analyzed, ۱۲۹ posts were in Kurdish and the rest in Arabic language. ۱۹۵ posts (۷۸%) mentioned the Covid-۱۹ vaccine. Posts mentioned the association of Covid-۱۹ with public health (۲۵%) and prevention (۲۲%). Posts with a higher number of likes were more likely to mention anti-vaccine contents (۶۹%) (p = ۰.۰۱۶) and screening (p = ۰.۰۴۱). Among those that mentioned the vaccine, posts that were anti-vaccine were less likely to mention prevention (p < ۰.۰۰۱).Conclusion: The ongoing resurgence of various versions of Covid-۱۹ has led the WHO to identify vaccine hesitancy as a major threat to global health. As social media platforms gain increasing popularity, there has been growing public health concerns regarding the impact of anti-vaccination content on downstream vaccine denial. Hence, urgent action to control online contents that threat public health is required.

کلیدواژه ها:

Covid-۱۹ ، vaccination ، pandemic ، hindrance ، social media