JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Vaccination is a critical component of the prevention of communicable diseases and is one of the most effective public health interventions. In today's world, social media is an important source of health and medical information. It is crucial to understand the link between social media involvement and influenza vaccination, since it might be applied to other vaccinations, such as those for COVID-19.

Objective:

This study aims to examine public engagement with COVID-19 vaccination across social media in Iraq.

Methods:

It represents an empirical survey to investigate the public engagement with the COVID-19 vaccine on social media. in Iraq. It has used a web-based questionnaire administered through Google Forms (n=2088) to elicit responses from Iraqi social media users, aged 18 years and over.

Results:

The research empirically revealed a lower level of vaccination engagement across social media and the findings suggested significant differences between public engagement due to level of use of social media and demographic backgrounds, particularly age, educational attainment, and income. Active users and young aged groups with less educational level and income were more likely to have a positive attitude toward vaccination engagement.

Conclusions:

Theoretically, this group is less powerful and influential in the society compared to the group who are more aged and have higher educational degrees and income. Hence, future studies should address demographics and the extent of using social media factors in public health studies. It is hoped that our findings will support the authorities in terms of using social media in raising health awareness to engage people successfully in the health system.