Development and validation of an instrument to verify vaccination hesitancy against COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES

to develop and validate the content and construct of an instrument for assessing vaccine hesitancy against COVID-19.

METHODS

methodological study, developed in three stages: i) construction of the instrument; ii) content validation by judges; and iii) validation of the construct by the target audience. The Health Beliefs Model was used to develop the instrument.

RESULTS

the instrument was constructed with 45 items. Seven items were excluded because they had a content validity coefficient of less than 0.8. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out to validate the construct. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin was 0.801 and Bartlett's test of sphericity showed p<0.001. Six items did not achieve sufficient factor loading to remain in the instrument. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed a valid and reliable instrument.

CONCLUSIONS

the developed instrument shows evidence of validity and is therefore recommended for research aiming to assess the reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.