Development of a COVID-19 Vaccination Anxiety Scale to measure COVID-19 vaccine anxiety in Japanese adults

Abstract Since 2020, COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly developed and distributed free of charge in several countries, but there remains deep-seated distrust and anxiety regarding their efficacy and safety. This study aimed to develop the C19-VAS to measure COVID-19 vaccine anxiety in Japanese adults. 500 Japanese participants were recruited through the web survey service. To assess test-retest reliability, the same participants were surveyed again after a four-week interval. These participants responded to the C19-VAS, the Japanese version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), the Japanese version of the 7C of Vaccination Readiness (7C), the Japanese version of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS-J), the Japanese versions of the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease (PVD-J), and socio-demographic variables. Results indicated the factor structure of the C19-VAS as including 25 items and 3 factors: “Anxiety Related to Vaccine Confidence (α = .96, ω = .96),” “Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety (α = .91, ω = .91),” and “Anxiety about Infection after Vaccination (α = .76, ω = .78).” The confirmatory factor analysis findings supported the 3 factors structure of the C19-VAS across gender with good fit statistics: CFI = .868, RMSEA = .071, SRMR = .079, AIC = 1434.177. The scale showed adequate construct validity, as indicated by significantly correlations with the FCV-19S-J (r = .44), 7C (r = −.59), GCBS-J (r = .55) and PVD-J (r = .19). Additionally, the ICC between Time 1 and Time 2 for “Anxiety Related to Vaccine Confidence” was .94, “Emotional Symptoms of Anxiety” was .91, and “Anxiety about Infection after Vaccination” was .81. This study clarified the factor structure of the C19-VAS and demonstrated its good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funding Statement The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Tohoku University Graduate School of Education's Ethics Committee gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data Availability All relevant data are within the Supporting Information files.