Social communication pathways to COVID-19 vaccine side-effect expectations and experience

Kelly S Clemens; Kate Faasse; Winston Tan; Ben Colagiuri; Luana Colloca; Rebecca Webster; Lene Vase; Emily Jason; Andrew L Geers

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2022.111081

Social communication pathways to COVID-19 vaccine side-effect expectations and experience

J Psychosom Res. 2023 Jan:164:111081. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2022.111081. Epub 2022 Nov 10.

Authors

Kelly S Clemens¹, Kate Faasse², Winston Tan³, Ben Colagiuri³, Luana Colloca⁴, Rebecca Webster⁵, Lene Vase⁶, Emily Jason¹, Andrew L Geers⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, United States of America.
² School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia.
³ School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia.
⁴ School of Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States of America.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, S12LT, UK.
⁶ Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, United States of America. Electronic address: andrew.geers@utoledo.edu.

Abstract

Objective: Negative beliefs about medication and vaccine side-effects can spread rapidly through social communication. This has been recently documented with the potential side-effects from the COVID-19 vaccines. We tested if pre-vaccination social communications about side-effects from personal acquaintances, news reports, and social media predict post-vaccination side-effect experiences. Further, as previous research suggests that side-effects can be exacerbated by negative expectations, we assessed if personal expectations mediate the relationships between social communication and side-effect experience.

Method: In a prospective longitudinal survey (N = 551), COVID-19 vaccine side-effect information from three sources-social media posts, news reports, and first-hand accounts from personal acquaintances-as well as side-effect expectations, were self-reported pre-vaccination. Vaccination side-effect experience was assessed post-vaccination.

Results: In multivariate regression analyses, the number of pre-vaccination social media post views (β = 0.17) and impressions of severity conveyed from personal acquaintances (β = 0.42) significantly predicted an increase in pre-vaccination side-effect expectations, and the same variables (βs = 0.11, 0.14, respectively) predicted post-vaccination side-effect experiences. Moreover, pre-vaccination side-effect expectations mediated the relationship between both sources of social communication and experienced side-effects from a COVID-19 vaccination.

Conclusions: This study identifies links between personal acquaintance and social media communications and vaccine side-effect experiences and provides evidence that pre-vaccination expectations account for these relationships. The results suggest that modifying side-effect expectations through these channels may change the side-effects following a COVID-19 vaccination as well as other publicly discussed vaccinations and medications.

Keywords: COVID-19; Expectations; Media; Nocebo; Side-effects; Vaccine.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19 Vaccines* / adverse effects
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Communication
Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions*
Humans
Motivation
Prospective Studies

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines