Measuring the 7Cs of Vaccination Readiness

Although vaccines are among the most effective interventions used in fighting diseases, vaccination readiness varies substantially among individuals. Vaccination readiness is defined as a set of components that increase or decrease AN individual's likelihood of getting vaccinated. Building on earlier work that distinguished five components of vaccination readiness (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility), we revised the questionnaire used to measure these components to improve its psychometric properties, specifically criterion validity. In doing so, we also developed two new components of vaccination readiness: compliance and conspiracy. Compliance is the tendency to support monitoring to control adherence to regulations: conspiracy is the tendency to endorse conspiratorial beliefs about vaccination. The newly introduced 7C scale was initially piloted in a cascade of serial cross-sectional studies and then validated with N = 681 participants from the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Denmark. We report a bifactor measurement model, convergent validity with other questionnaires, and an explanation of 85% variance in the willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. We also present a 7-item short version of the scale. The instrument is publicly available in several languages (www.vaccination-readiness.com), and we seek collaboration to provide translations of our instrument into other languages.

Automated summary

Vaccination readiness varies among individuals, and researchers have developed a questionnaire to measure the components of readiness. The questionnaire was revised to improve its validity, and two new components were added: compliance and conspiracy. The revised 7C scale was validated and found to explain a significant amount of variance in willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. The instrument is publicly available in multiple languages, and collaboration is sought for translations.