Trust in Childhood Vaccines in Turkey

Authors: Ceylan Engin*, Selin Ongan, Rümeysa Türkbey

*Department of Sociology, Boğaziçi University  
Funders of research: Our project, coded 21B08SUP2, is funded by BU Scientific Research Projects.

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Using the data from the 2022 Turkish COVID-19 Values Study (TCVS), conducted face-to-face with 1500 participants, we assess the level of trust in childhood vaccines in Turkey and demonstrate how trust levels vary by individuals’ gender, age, and number of children.

Regarding childhood vaccinations, the findings show that around 32 percent of the population report a trust level of 5 or less on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 indicates no trust at all and 10 indicates complete trust. More specifically, 1.68 percent reported no trust at all for childhood vaccines. While majority of participants express trust in childhood vaccines, those who report complete trust remain under 12 percent (See Figure 1).
 

Figure 1*. Percentage of Trust in Childhood Vaccines, Turkey 2022 (N= 1485)

Examining the variation in trust in childhood vaccines by gender, no significant difference was found between the trust levels of men and women. On a scale from 0 to 10, women’s trust in childhood vaccinations was 6.69 compared to men’s trust level of 6.57 (See Figure 2). We also did not find age to be a significant determinant of trust in childhood vaccinations.
 

Figure 2*. Trust in Childhood Vaccines by Gender, Turkey 2022 (N= 1485)

Comparing individuals who have children (56.87% of the sample) to those without children (43.13% of the sample), we find that those with children have significantly greater levels of trust in childhood vaccinations. For instance, 12.85 percent of those who have children completely trust childhood vaccines compared to 9.73 percent of those without children. On the other hand, around 30 percent of individuals with children report a trust level of 5 or less compared to 34 percent of those without children (See Figure 3). 
 

Figure 3*. Trust in Childhood Vaccinations by Having Children or Not, Turkey 2022 (N= 1485)

*Missing data was removed using the listwise deletion method.

Sociology Data Lab (SDL)
Boğaziçi University
socdatalab@bogazici.edu.tr