Disease Perception and Vaccination Hesitancy in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil: Gender Comparison

Abstract

Vaccination coverage in Brazil has been showing significant decrease in the last 5 years, highlighting the problem of vaccine hesitancy. In 2020, the World Health Organization declared the beginning of the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus. By the time of writing this study, more than 640,000 Brazilians had died from the coronavirus and the only existing prevention is the vaccine. One of the factors that contribute to the decision-making process for vaccination is the ability to perceive the severity of a disease and one's vulnerability to it. The objective of this study was to characterize the relationship between the factors that permeate perceptions and attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine between genders. For that, psychometric scales were used that measured and evaluated the intrinsic factors of vaccine hesitancy. The data collection took place through the Google Forms platform in 2020 and 2021. The results showed an average level of vaccine hesitancy. A high level of perception of vulnerability to the disease and significant differences in the level of perception were found between the female and male samples. In this context, factors such as perception of the infectious disease and the social scenario can indicate the intention of a population to vaccinate or not.