Between Intention and Action: the Paradoxes of Female Vaccination

Background: The article addresses two paradoxes related to the vaccination of women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first paradox lies in the fact that, though women tend to be more concerned about health issues, they declare less of an intention to vaccinate than do men. The second paradox is that, despite reporting less intention to vaccinate, women actually take up vaccines more than men. This article sets out to study the reasons for these paradoxes.

Methods: We used information from a representative sample of the Spanish population. A dichotomous variable was created ('change' versus 'consistency', in relation to respondents' intention and final decision to get vaccinated), and two logistic regression models were applied: one for the group of women and the other for the group of men.

Results: Several factors have been identified as influencing the change of opinion: such as trust in the health system, conspiracy beliefs about vaccines, positive evaluation of science and technology, level of knowledge, ideology and religion. It is noteworthy that several differences are found between men and women in terms of the factors causing them to change their opinion about vaccination.

Conclusions: The most relevant conclusion is that intention studies in the field of vaccination lose predictive power in the case of women's vaccination. It should also be noted that, with women, there are no factors that conclusively explain their change of opinion. Therefore, if the factors influencing vaccination behaviour are to be discovered, it is necessary to modify the questions included in the questionnaires in order to find the variables that explain women's behaviour.