Vaccine Hesitancy Factors in Iraq

The questionnaire was a modified version of the questionnaire published as a pre-print by Goodwin et al., (2022) [10 (link)] to establish the psychological factor underpinning vaccine hesitancy. We translated Goodman et al’s (2022) [10 (link)] measures of perceived likelihood of infection, perceived severity of illness, perceived benefits to vaccination, perceived barriers to vaccination, trust in Government and social norms into Arabic. We modified Goodwin et al’s (2022) [10 (link)] measure of vaccine hesitancy to reflect the fact that Iraq had already commenced its vaccination program and Goodwins original measure was designed for administration prior to the start of a vaccination program. Specifically, we added in a questionnaire asking the participant to report their COVID-19 vaccination status. The questionnaire was delivered online via Google forms. The link to information about the study was included in the Facebook post which advertised the study. Participants who clicked on the link in the advert were then asked to read the study information, confirm they were over 18 years of age and consent to the study. Failure to consent or being under 18 years of age prevented participants from accessing the questionnaire. All questions were presented in Arabic. All participants completed questions exploring demographics and their attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Participants also indicated whether they had received any vaccination for COVID-19 (vaccinated), or whether they were unvaccinated (unvaccinated). Those who were unvaccinated also completed a further series of questions exploring their beliefs about their likelihood of infection with COVID-19, their perceptions of the severity of COVID-19 infection, the perceived benefits of vaccination, the perceived barriers to vaccination, subjective norms, and trust in government. The questionnaire took approximately 11 minutes to complete.