Data for Action: Achieving High Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccines - Gathering and Using Data on the Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination

"Understanding how people think, feel and act in relation to vaccination is vital to informing the development of strategies to generate acceptance and uptake for the vaccines."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), generating and using data on behavioural and social drivers (BeSD) with tools such as surveys and interview guides can help address the drivers and barriers to COVID-19 vaccines uptake. Developed by a multi-disciplinary group of global experts and partners, this guidebook is designed to enable programmes to design, target, and evaluate data-informed, tailored communication interventions whose purpose is to generate acceptance and uptake for the vaccines.

BeSD measures 4 domains that influence vaccine uptake: what people think and feel about vaccines; social processes that drive or inhibit vaccination; individual motivations (or hesitancy) to seek vaccination; and practical factors involved in seeking and receiving vaccination, as pictured here:

There are 4 tools (available in Annex 1) in this guidebook. They are geared towards populations prioritised for COVID-19 vaccines, based on WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) guidance: (i) survey for adults; (ii) survey for health workers; (iii) qualitative interview guide for adults; and (iv) qualitative interview guide for health workers. The surveys and interview guides can be used separately or together, and they are designed to easily integrate with other data collection activities.

This guide is structured across three steps: 1) Plan; 2) Investigate; and 3) Act. It outlines the methods and best practices to support implementation of the surveys and interview guides, including local adaptation of materials, and offers recommendations for data collection and analysis. It also includes a basic decision tool to help inform country planning and the design of interventions to increase vaccine uptake.

Contents:

• Introduction
• Plan to use the BeSD tools
• Investigate the drivers: data collection, analysis and reporting
• Act on the data: moving from findings to interventions
• Annexes:
  1. Survey and interview guides
  2. Guidance for adapting the BeSD survey
  3. Guidance for adapting the BeSD qualitative interview guide
  4. WHO policy on use and sharing of data
  5. Visualizations of findings: examples
  6. Intervention categories per indicator
  7. Sample monitoring and evaluation framework

Based on planned cognitive interviews and psychometric validation, WHO expects to provide ongoing updates to this guidebook and the tools later in 2021. To enable WHO and partners to gather learning, insights, and feedback, please inform Lisa Menning at WHO headquarters (see Network Contact, above) if you use these tools.