# Impact of Vaccination-Differentiated Public Health and Social Measures on Vaccine Uptake Among the Vaccine Hesitant

## TL;DR

This study shows that policies offering privileges to vaccinated people, like dining out, helped increase vaccine uptake among hesitant individuals, especially younger age groups.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates that vaccination-differentiated measures, particularly dining access, effectively increased vaccine uptake among hesitant populations.

## Key findings

- VDMs for dining out and shopping malls significantly increased vaccine uptake among the vaccine-naïve population.
- Dining VDMs had the strongest effect on younger age groups (13–17, 25–34, 35–49 years).
- Mall access VDMs showed consistent effectiveness across all age groups.

## Abstract

•Vaccine hesitancy poses a hurdle toward achieving population vaccine coverage.•One policy response adopted for vaccine hesitancy was vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures (VDMs).•VDMs for dining out and shopping malls proved effective among the vaccine-naïve population.•Dining VDMs, in particular, proved most effective among younger age groups.

Vaccine hesitancy poses a hurdle toward achieving population vaccine coverage.

One policy response adopted for vaccine hesitancy was vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures (VDMs).

VDMs for dining out and shopping malls proved effective among the vaccine-naïve population.

Dining VDMs, in particular, proved most effective among younger age groups.

Vaccine hesitancy poses a hurdle toward achieving high population-level immunity and reducing disease transmission. One policy response adopted during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign was the implementation of vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures on COVID-19 vaccination rates in Singapore, with a specific focus on vaccine-hesitant persons.

An interrupted time series design with segmented linear regression was utilized to assess the impact of the announcement of each vaccination-differentiated public health and social measure on vaccine uptake rates among the vaccine-naive population. Newey-West standard errors with a 7-day lag were applied to address potential autocorrelation in the data. Covariates adjusted for included day of the week, daily numbers of COVID-19–related cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and patients in the intensive care unit.

The study found a significant and positive effect of vaccination-differentiated public health and social measure announcements on the daily vaccine uptake rate among the vaccine-naive population, specifically for dining out and patronizing shopping malls. When stratified by age group, the significant and positive effect of the announcement of mall access vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures persisted across all age groups, and it only persisted for individuals aged 13–17, 25–34, and 35–49 years for the announcement of dining vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures.

Overall, the findings support the effectiveness of vaccination-differentiated public health and social measures in increasing vaccine uptake rates among vaccine-hesitant persons. However, the compelling evidence for complementary policies should also be considered.