Developing an attitude toward polio vaccination scale and establishing its psychometric properties in Pakistani context for indigenous and international researchers.

Objectives: Negative attitudes toward polio vaccination in Pakistan are threatening the global polio eradication efforts by encouraging vaccine refusals and attacks on polio workers. The present research explored the underlying dimensions of these attitudes and their correlates: Uncertainty and belief in conspiracy theories.

Methods: This research began with the development of an item pool generated with the help of an open-ended survey of university students (n = 44). Face and content validity assessment by subject experts (n = 9) led to an initial version of the attitude toward polio vaccination scale (ATPVS). This scale was administered to a sample of Pakistani adults (n = 620) through two means: Paper-and-pencil survey and an online survey.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis on one-half of the sample (n = 310) suggested a factor structure consisting of two internally consistent factors: Scepticism and Advocacy. On second half of the sample (n = 310), confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure of this scale. Hypothesis testing for convergent validity on the total sample (n = 620) revealed that self-uncertainty was positively related to scepticism and negatively related to advocacy. Whereas conspiracy mentality was positively associated with both of these components which indicates an understudied aspect of this construct related to concern for social welfare.

Conclusion: Scepticism and advocacy of the polio vaccination campaign represent attitudes toward polio vaccination in Pakistan with self-uncertainty and conspiracy mentality being their significant correlates. Capitalizing on these variables in designing a vaccination promotion campaign may yield benefits.