Background: Medication beliefs can predict medication adherence. Vaccines may not be perceived as medications, and therefore medication beliefs may not predict vaccination status. The aim was to investigate the association between beliefs about medications, as opposed to attitudes towards vaccines (vaccine hesitancy), and COVID-19 vaccination status in the general public.
Methods: An online questionnaire survey using social media was conducted in Denmark. The validated Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) was used to measure beliefs about medications. The newly validated Danish translation of the Vaccination Attitudes Examination scale (VAX) was applied to measure vaccine hesitancy. Independent t-test compared medication beliefs and vaccination hesitancy between COVID-19 vaccinated and not vaccinated respondents.
Results: Among in total 211 respondents, 83% were female; mean (SD) age was 49.9 (18.0) years; 83%, 6% and 11%, respectively, were fully, partly and not COVID-19 vaccinated. Fully vaccinated compared to not vaccinated respondents had more positive beliefs about medications and lower hesitancy towards vaccines: respective mean (SD) BMQ scores (scale range 1-5) were 3.7 (0.60) and 2.3 (0.59), p<0.001, while respective mean (SD) VAX scores (scale range 1-6) were 2.4 (0.834) and 4.9 (0.932), p<0.001. The mean total BMQ and VAX scores were negatively correlated (r=-0.716, p<0.01).
Conclusion: Even though beliefs about medications and attitudes towards vaccines were correlated, attitudes towards vaccines seem to be more strongly associated with COVID-19 vaccination status than were beliefs about medicines. The findings should be further confirmed in regression analysis.