Authors: Terrence Kairiza, George Kembo, Lloyd Chigusiwa
The purpose of this review was to examine herding behavior in vaccine hesitancy, with a special focus on the moderating role of household access to health information from village health workers (VHWs) under different risk perceptions in rural Zimbabwe. To do so, researchers analyzed data collected from 13,583 responses to the 2021 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee cross-sectional household national survey. Results of this analysis uncovered that herding behavior does play a role in rural households’ hesitancy towards the COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, while access to health information from VHWs was found to reduce herding behavior in vaccine hesitancy, it does so more when the household perceives itself to be at high risk of contracting COVID-19. These findings can assist policymakers in developing more targeted vaccination strategies, such as promoting access to health information through channels like VHWs.
Link: Herding behavior in COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural Zimbabwe: The moderating role of health information under heterogeneous household risk perceptions
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Resource Topic: Health information, Vaccine hesitancy, Village health workers
Resource Type: Review
Year: 2023
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
Country: Zimbabwe
Publisher May Restrict Access: No