Cheng, Tao;
Han, Baoyan;
Liu, Yunzhe;
(2023)
Exploring public sentiment and vaccination uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in England: a spatiotemporal and sociodemographic analysis of Twitter data.
Frontiers in Public Health
, 11
, Article 1193750. 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1193750.
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Abstract
Objectives: Vaccination is widely regarded as the paramount approach for safeguarding individuals against the repercussions of COVID-19. Nonetheless, concerns surrounding the efficacy and potential adverse effects of these vaccines have become prevalent among the public. To date, there has been a paucity of research investigating public perceptions and the adoption of COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, the present study endeavours to address this lacuna by undertaking a spatiotemporal analysis of sentiments towards vaccination and its uptake in England at the local authority level, while concurrently examining the sociodemographic attributes at the national level. // Methods: A sentiment analysis of Twitter data was undertaken to delineate the distribution of positive sentiments and their demographic correlates. Positive sentiments were categorized into clusters to streamline comparison across different age and gender demographics. The relationship between positive sentiment and vaccination uptake was evaluated using Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Additionally, a bivariate analysis was carried out to further probe public sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines and their local adoption rates. // Result: The results indicated that the majority of positive tweets were posted by males, although females expressed higher levels of positive sentiment. The age group over 40 dominated the positive tweets and exhibited the highest sentiment polarity. Additionally, vaccination uptake was positively correlated with the number of positive tweets and the age group at the local authority level. // Conclusion: Overall, public opinions on COVID-19 vaccines are predominantly positive. The number of individuals receiving vaccinations at the local authority level is positively correlated with the prevalence of positive attitudes towards vaccines, particularly among the population aged over 40. These findings suggest that targeted efforts to increase vaccination uptake among younger populations, particularly males, are necessary to achieve widespread vaccination coverage.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exploring public sentiment and vaccination uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in England: a spatiotemporal and sociodemographic analysis of Twitter data |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1193750 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1193750 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2023 Cheng, Han and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, vaccine, social media, sentiment analysis, vaccination intention, sociodemographic analysis, spatiotemporal analysis |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Civil, Environ and Geomatic Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10176556 |
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