People with depression are vulnerable to false alarms of the COVID-19 vaccine

Americans with symptoms of depression are more likely to support the false information of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the results of a national survey that emphasizes the need to address the susceptibility of people with depression to false information. Become.

New discoveries from a study conducted by a team of U.S.-based researchers also suggest that those who are likely not vaccinated with COVID-19 and the four COVID-19 vaccine misinformation statements presented. To them who have shown a correlation with those who resist practice if they endorse any one of them.

Researchers led by Dr. Roy H. Perlis, Massachusetts General Hospital, said they could believe in depressive symptoms and false information about the COVID-19 vaccine, a public health behavior that was recognized before the pandemic. I tried to find out the relationship. During a pandemic, about a quarter of adults in the United States consistently report moderate or higher depressive symptoms.

“While false information is being studied more and more, most of this work is focused on how and why such false information spreads,” writes Perlis and colleagues. .. “General prejudices against negativity in information selection, processing, and recall can exacerbate the exposure of false information. In the context of political false alarms, both anger and anxiety are certain types. Is related to promoting belief in false stories. “

The team analyzed responses collected from two waves of a national low-probability Internet survey conducted from May to July 2021. This survey was provided to more than 15,000 adults over the age of 18 and was associated with depressive symptoms and support for false information, as well as mediators or moderators of such associations.

Investigators measured depressive symptoms in the adults surveyed through the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 items (PHQ-9) and performed a population reweighted multiple logistic regression analysis with moderate to severe depressive symptoms and 1 item. We investigated the relationship with the approval of the above vaccine information. They also adjusted the socio-demographic features in determining relevance.

Of the 15,464 survey respondents, 63.6% were female, with an average age of 47.9 years. Respondents were mainly whites (76.7%), followed by blacks (9.7%), Hispanics (6.6%), and Asians (4.7%).

Similar to the previous national assessment in COVID-19, a quarter (26.9%) of respondents identified moderate or higher depressive symptoms with PHQ-9. About one-fifth (19.2%) approved at least one vaccine-related statement of false information about the investigation. Such a statement is:

• “COVID-19 vaccine will change people’s DNA”
• “The COVID-19 vaccine contains a microchip that can track people.”
• “The COVID-19 vaccine contains the lung tissue of a miscarried fetal.”
• “COVID-19 vaccine can cause infertility, making pregnancy more difficult.”

Respondents with depressive symptoms were more than twice as likely to support incorrect information (odds ratio) for the COVID-19 vaccine. [OR], 2.33; 95% CI, 2.09 – 2.61). Respondents who supported one or more incorrect information items were significantly less likely to be vaccinated (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.36 – 0.45) and were significantly more likely to report vaccine resistance. (OR, 2.54; 95% CI, 2.21 – 2.91).

Of the more than 2,800 respondents who responded to subsequent surveys in July, the presence of depression in the first survey from May approves more information in July compared to the previous survey. It was likely associated with (OR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.42 – 2.75).

Each of these correlations remained statistically significant when the investigators adjusted the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, as well as the self-reported ideology and party information. Although the findings do not provide conclusions about the causal relationship, the assessment of the second wave survey respondents suggested to the investigators that incorrect information is unlikely to cause depression.

“In general, there is a negative bias in information processing, even in the absence of depression,” they write. “People with symptoms of major depression often show a more pronounced negative bias. This is a type of attention bias that is more focused on thinking with negative valence.”

The team noted that individuals with depression may be less willing to trust institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) whose mission is to combat false information. “But we found that incorporating the term trust in these institutions into the regression model did not change the main association with depression, which does not support associations of trust in institutions,” they write. ..

Perlis et al., Although their findings are “inevitably associative,” the results showing a link between depression and the support of misinformation in COVID-19 lead to strategies that can reduce the outcome. We conclude that this alone broadly suggests the importance of directly testing causality in future assessments. The effect of depression on personal information recognition.

“To date, efforts to combat the effects of false information on public health have primarily emphasized reduced supply,” they wrote. “In parallel, it may be possible to develop interventions aimed at negative bias that reduce demand, or at least adjust the ability of false information to influence health decision-making.”

the study, “Association of major depressive symptoms in adults in the United States with support for false alarms of the COVID-19 vaccine”Was published online JAMA network open..