Semester Award Granted

Spring 2025

Submission Date

May 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Traci Baxley

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is a complicated public health issue that could compromise the well-being of our communities, evident not only in the COVID-19 pandemic but also in the increasing occurrences of vaccine hesitancy toward long-established vaccines, leading to breakthrough cases of diseases such as measles. Several factors can impact this complex phenomenon, such as health education (HE), attitudes towards social media (SMA) and exercise (EA), chronic disease exposure/risk perception (CDR), and demographic variables.

This study examined the relationship between health literacy (HL), and health behavior intention. The eHeals assessment measured HL and an assessment of vaccine attitude (VA) measured health behavior intention. The researcher delivered an anonymous survey, hosted on Qualtrics, through email to nine health-related courses, which collected responses over 4 weeks. A sample size of n = 909 was accessed through those courses, yielding 592 responses.

The researcher analyzed data through SPSS version 29.2.0 with an add-in macro (PROCESS v4.2 by Andrew F. Hayes, 2022) used to conduct the moderation/mediation analysis. The results indicated a partial mediation of SMA and CDR on the relationship between HL and VA, full mediation occurred with HE, and no mediation occurred with EA. Regarding demographics, the study noted significant moderation in some cases, including number of children, religion, hours worked per week, and COVID-19 vaccine status. The study noted insignificant moderation in age, race, relationship status, and social class variables.

The results demonstrated the complex relationship of these variables and demonstrated that there could be an improvement in VA by strengthening SMA and that past medical experiences and disease risk perception can also increase VA. The role of HE and EA needs to be studied further, as these relationships are not fully understood. Demographic data also need to be examined, as they play a moderating role in some instances.

Download

Share

COinS