Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire

Background: Vaccine refusal and hesitancy represent a crucial challenge to public health, causing delays in vaccination and compromising herd immunity. Methods: To address this issue, we conducted a comprehensive observational study on the adult Spanish population in 2021. Using an online questionna...

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Autores: Huguet-Feixa, Agnes, Artigues-Barberà, Eva, Sol, Joaquim, Gómez Arbonés, Javier, Godoy i García, Pere, Ortega Bravo, Marta
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/468730
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1186/S12875-025-02820-2
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468730
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Anti-vaccination movement
Anti-vaccine
Vaccination refusal
Vaccine hesitancy
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spelling Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaireHuguet-Feixa, AgnesArtigues-Barberà, EvaSol, JoaquimGómez Arbonés, JavierGodoy i García, PereOrtega Bravo, MartaAnti-vaccination movementAnti-vaccineVaccination refusalVaccine hesitancyBackground: Vaccine refusal and hesitancy represent a crucial challenge to public health, causing delays in vaccination and compromising herd immunity. Methods: To address this issue, we conducted a comprehensive observational study on the adult Spanish population in 2021. Using an online questionnaire, we examined the sociodemographic and sociocultural factors, beliefs, and opinions of those refusing or hesitant about vaccines, as well as their vaccination behaviors by vaccine type and sex. Results: There were 1,312 respondents: 74.5% were female, 73.7% were between 31 and 59 years old, and 71.0% had university studies. Our findings revealed that vaccine refusal rates were relatively low (16.8%), and mainly associated with influenza vaccination (10.3%). Higher refusal rates were observed in those over 60 years old, those expressing hesitancy due to vaccine components, those opposing free and compulsory vaccination, those unaware that vaccination protects the community, and those against consuming cow’s milk and using infant formulas for breastfeeding. Vaccine hesitancy was greatest in individuals under 31 years old, women, parents of children under 15 years old, against compulsory vaccination, unaware that vaccination protects the community, with hesitancy due to vaccine costs, and in favour of alternative and complementary treatments. Conclusions: These insights highlight the need for strategies to improve education about vaccination and dispel misconceptions, which are crucial for effectively reducing vaccine refusal and hesitancy across the population.This work was supported by Ajuts a Projectes en Projectes en Recerca en Atenció Primària-Diputació Lleida 2021-1a Edició (Ajut PICARD) modalitat projecte (4R22/152) y modalitat publicació i traducció d’articles (9F22/017) and by BECA AEPap-FPS 2020 for research in Primary Care Paediatrics.Springer Nature2025info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttps://doi.org/10.1186/S12875-025-02820-2https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468730reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésReproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1186/S12875-025-02820-2BMC Primary Care, 2025, vol. 26, núm. 132cc-by-nc-nd (c) Huguet-Feixa et al., 2025Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/4687302026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
title Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
spellingShingle Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
Huguet-Feixa, Agnes
Anti-vaccination movement
Anti-vaccine
Vaccination refusal
Vaccine hesitancy
title_short Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
title_full Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
title_fullStr Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
title_full_unstemmed Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
title_sort Vaccine refusal and hesitancy in Spain: an online cross-sectional questionnaire
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Huguet-Feixa, Agnes
Artigues-Barberà, Eva
Sol, Joaquim
Gómez Arbonés, Javier
Godoy i García, Pere
Ortega Bravo, Marta
author Huguet-Feixa, Agnes
author_facet Huguet-Feixa, Agnes
Artigues-Barberà, Eva
Sol, Joaquim
Gómez Arbonés, Javier
Godoy i García, Pere
Ortega Bravo, Marta
author_role author
author2 Artigues-Barberà, Eva
Sol, Joaquim
Gómez Arbonés, Javier
Godoy i García, Pere
Ortega Bravo, Marta
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Anti-vaccination movement
Anti-vaccine
Vaccination refusal
Vaccine hesitancy
topic Anti-vaccination movement
Anti-vaccine
Vaccination refusal
Vaccine hesitancy
description Background: Vaccine refusal and hesitancy represent a crucial challenge to public health, causing delays in vaccination and compromising herd immunity. Methods: To address this issue, we conducted a comprehensive observational study on the adult Spanish population in 2021. Using an online questionnaire, we examined the sociodemographic and sociocultural factors, beliefs, and opinions of those refusing or hesitant about vaccines, as well as their vaccination behaviors by vaccine type and sex. Results: There were 1,312 respondents: 74.5% were female, 73.7% were between 31 and 59 years old, and 71.0% had university studies. Our findings revealed that vaccine refusal rates were relatively low (16.8%), and mainly associated with influenza vaccination (10.3%). Higher refusal rates were observed in those over 60 years old, those expressing hesitancy due to vaccine components, those opposing free and compulsory vaccination, those unaware that vaccination protects the community, and those against consuming cow’s milk and using infant formulas for breastfeeding. Vaccine hesitancy was greatest in individuals under 31 years old, women, parents of children under 15 years old, against compulsory vaccination, unaware that vaccination protects the community, with hesitancy due to vaccine costs, and in favour of alternative and complementary treatments. Conclusions: These insights highlight the need for strategies to improve education about vaccination and dispel misconceptions, which are crucial for effectively reducing vaccine refusal and hesitancy across the population.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.1186/S12875-025-02820-2
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468730
url https://doi.org/10.1186/S12875-025-02820-2
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468730
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.1186/S12875-025-02820-2
BMC Primary Care, 2025, vol. 26, núm. 132
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by-nc-nd (c) Huguet-Feixa et al., 2025
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by-nc-nd (c) Huguet-Feixa et al., 2025
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer Nature
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer Nature
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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