Untangling choices: how awareness and socio-economic status shape malaria vaccination decisions among Ghanaian women

Abstract

Malaria remains a major public health challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, making effective vaccine uptake a priority. Although individual factors such as awareness, education, and place of residence are known to influence vaccination decisions, there is a gap in understanding how these socio-economic attributes interact with social context to shape choices under peer influence. This study addresses this gap by applying the Multi-Population Curie-Weiss Model, a statistical mechanics framework, to analyse binary vaccination decisions influenced jointly by private incentives and social interactions. Data were obtained from the 2019 Ghana Malaria Indicator Survey (GMIS), which included 3,004 women. Analysis showed that 93.54% of respondents intended to vaccinate their children, whereas 6.45% did not. Among those in favour, 72.10% had received formal education, while 27.90% had not; 40.10% were aware of the malaria vaccine, whereas 56.90% were unaware. Among respondents who did not intend to vaccinate, 78.35% were educated and 21.65% were uneducated; 28.87% were aware of the vaccine, while 71.13% lacked prior awareness. In the absence of social interactions, factors such as education, vaccine awareness, and place of residence were associated with vaccination decisions. Rural women with some education demonstrated a modest increase (1.62%) in intrinsic motivation, indicating a positive association between education and vaccination. When social interactions were incorporated, educational attainment and vaccine awareness exhibited significant associations with vaccination choices. Notably, the interaction strength among urban educated women yielded a negative estimate ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mspace></mml:mspace></mml:mrow> </mml:math> 4.06%), suggesting limited imitative effects, whereas rural uneducated women appeared to exert greater social influence on their educated rural counterparts. These findings provide insights for public health authorities seeking to design strategies to improve malaria vaccine uptake and reduce the disease burden among vulnerable populations in Ghana.