Do social media epistemological beliefs and health perception impact parents’ vaccine hesitancy? A mediation analysis

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in vaccine hesitancy among individuals. It is crucial to identify the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy to effectively address this issue. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media-specific epistemological beliefs on vaccine hesitancy and the mediating role of health perception in this impact. This study is a cross-sectional study conducted with 444 parents. Data were collected using the Personal Information Form, the Social Media-Specific Epistemological Beliefs Scale, the Perception of Health Scale, and the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale. When there is no mediator variable, the total effect of social media-specific epistemological beliefs on vaccine hesitancy is statistically significant (β = -0.219, <i>p</i> < 0.001). However, it was found that health perception did not mediate the relationship between social media-specific epistemological beliefs and vaccine hesitancy (β = 0.0038, 95% confidence interval (-0.0090, 0.0205)). Furthermore, it was determined that social media-specific epistemological beliefs positively predicted health perception (β = 0.136, <i>p</i> < 0.01). Health perception was found to have no significant effect on vaccine hesitancy (β = 0.028, <i>p</i> > 0.05). It can be concluded that social media-specific epistemological beliefs negatively predict vaccine hesitancy, and this effect is independent of health perception. Primary healthcare professionals should consider incorporating interventions aimed at enhancing individuals' social media-specific epistemological beliefs into their health education programs related to vaccines.