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Information sources and adoption of vaccine during pandemics

Sanjit Sengupta (College of Business, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA)
Hui-ming Deanna Wang (College of Business, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA)

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing

ISSN: 1750-6123

Article publication date: 28 October 2014

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of different information sources on consumer health behavior during pandemics.

Design/methodology/approach

We collected survey data from 321 adults in a large western US city during November 2009 by mall and street intercepts. We analyzed their beliefs, attitudes and intentions with regard to adoption of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. We developed and tested two alternative models on the role of mass media and personal information sources on the attitude towards the disease and the intention to get vaccinated.

Findings

Our study finds that mass media and personal sources of information simultaneously impact perceived threat from disease (attitude) and the intention to get vaccinated during a global pandemic. Personal information sources are more effective than mass media sources in impacting both attitude and intention. While the impact of mass media weakens from the attitude stage to the intention stage, the impact of personal information sources increases from the attitude stage to the intention stage.

Originality/value

The contribution of this paper to health policy makers and marketers is to draw implications on how mass media and personal information sources could be better utilized to counter future global pandemics.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Michael Chan, Ahmad Dabbas, Adrian Grant, Joanna Fedorowicz, Vaishali Raja and Sachin Yadav during the data collection phase of this project. We also acknowledge the helpful comments of participants during the presentation at the Academy of Marketing Science Conference in Monterey, California, in May 2012.

Citation

Sengupta, S. and Deanna Wang, H.-m. (2014), "Information sources and adoption of vaccine during pandemics", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 357-370. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-01-2014-0002

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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