Psychometric properties of Dispvac Scale: evidence of its content, internal validity, external validity, and reliability

Abstract

Introduction: One of the main barriers to access to vaccination against infectious diseases is vaccine hesitancy, which is usually measured or associated to a low disposition to receive vaccination, anti-vaccine attitudes or the reported probability to receive a vaccine. However, there is no consensus in the way this construct is measured. Objective: The objective of this study it to identify the psychometric properties and the factorial structure of the Scale Dispvac in a Colombian sample. Method: To this goal, a psychometric design was made to identify the psychometric properties of the new scale making use of 1131 participants (male: 37.30%, female: 61.90%, other: 0.79%; age mean: 25.84, age SD: 10.19), through a convenience sampling. We conducted an exploratory factorial analysis, a confirmatory factorial analysis, a reliability analysis, and the convergent validity. Results: Two factors are suggested: Cognitive attitudes towards vaccination and perceived legitimacy of authorities to require vaccination. The Dispvac Scale is negatively correlated with the VAX Scale. Conclusions: The mentioned factors suggest that intention to vaccinate also implies beliefs on the authority in vaccination.