The impact of individuals' health literacy and digital literacy levels on vaccine hesitancy in the community

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the influence of community health literacy and digital literacy levels on vaccine hesitancy. Materials and Methods: The study population consisted of employees and students of Samsun Ondokuz Mayıs University. A total of 300 participants were reached for data collection. The data of the research was collected online in the form of Google Form. The study employed the "Descriptive Information Form," "Health Literacy Scale," "Digital Literacy Scale," and "Vaccine Hesitancy Scale" as assessment tools. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS Statistics 20 software. Pearson correlation analysis was employed to assess the relationship between variables, and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictive power of independent variables on the dependent variable. Results: The mean age of the participants in the study was 32.74±10.37, with the majority being female participants (56.7%). Of the participants, 43.7% had a bachelor's degree or higher education, and 29.3% were healthcare professionals. The participants had an average self-reported general health status of 7.55±1.60 on a scale of 10. Regarding childhood vaccinations, 93% of the participants reported having received their recommended immunizations. The mean total score on the Health Literacy Scale was 99.29±22.01, while the mean total score on the Digital Literacy Scale was 60.58±16.20. The mean total score on the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale was 73.87±10.36. A significant relationship was found between health literacy and vaccine hesitancy scores (R=0.301, R2adjusted=0.085, F(2,297)=14.810; p=0.000). This variable accounted for 8.5% of the variation in vaccine hesitancy scores. However, no significant predictive relationship was found between digital literacy scores and vaccine hesitancy (p>0.05). Conclusion: The participants demonstrated a good level of health literacy. It was observed that participants with higher health literacy had lower levels of vaccine hesitancy.