Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for COVID-19 Vaccination by Iranian Society Using the Health Belief Model and Contingent Valuation

Introduction: owing to the widespread covid-19 pandemic, it has been introduced as an emergency problem for global health by the world health organization (who). thus, policymaking to enhance public awareness and preparedness for successful vaccination should be a priority in the health policies of a country. in the present study, we examined the factors affecting the acceptance, intention, and willingness of iranian society to pay for covid-19 vaccination. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted in iran for six months in 2020. it was conducted by distributing a questionnaire in cyberspace. after distributing it, the respondents were asked to send the relevant link to some of their friends after answering its questions (snowball method). in this study, the constructs of the health belief model were used to identify the acceptance and intention of vaccination and evaluate the individuals’ maximum willingness to pay for each dose of vaccine using questions based on the contingent valuation method. results: most of the participants in the present study were 18-35 years old (50.8%), female (57.3%), and married (64.9%); most of them lived in urban areas (91.4%), had a bachelor’s degree (38.4%), and had monthly income between 40 and 60 million rials (26.8%). in terms of health status, only a small percentage reported their general health status at a poor level (2.8%), and 22% reported one chronic disease. a total of 323 (81.5%) participants responded positively to the intention of vaccinating, while only 73 (18.5%) answered negatively. the majority of participants (68%) were not willing to pay for vaccination. the mean and standard deviation for the amount the participants were willing to pay was 36742426488349.30 rials. conclusion: since the outbreak of coronavirus disease, governmental measures to reduce mortality or morbidity such as public education, social distancing policies, and screening tests have been helpful, but the most effective way to control this disease was a widespread implementation of general vaccination. to implement it, preparedness and acceptance of vaccination by society will play an effective role.