Attitudes and Behaviors of Canadians Towards COVID-19 Prevention Measures According to Vaccination Status: A Multi-phase, Cross-sectional Sequential Observational Cohort Study from May 2021 to June 2022.

Authors

Florence Coulombe Raymond, Lydia Hébert-Auger, Camille Léger, Frédérique Deslauriers, Vincent Gosselin Boucher, Maximilien V Dialufuma, Noémie Tremblay, Simon L Bacon, Kim L Lavoie

Published in

International journal of behavioral medicine. Aug 10, 2026. Epub Aug 10, 2026.

Abstract

Research on the impact of vaccine rollout and vaccination on the relationship between perceived importance of and adherence to preventive behaviors in Canada remains limited. This study assessed adherence to preventive behaviors (mask wearing, hand washing, social distancing, self-isolating when sick, refraining from visiting hospitality venues, and refraining from gathering with others) as a function of vaccination status after vaccines became available in Canada as of December 2020.
As part of the iCARE study, five cross-sectional age, sex, and province-weighted population-based samples totaling 14,771 Canadians aged 18+ years completed an online survey between May 2021 and June 2022. Vaccination status (categorized as unvaccinated or vaccinated (includes partial or fully vaccinated)), perceived importance of, and adherence to, preventive behaviors were assessed across the five survey periods.
Logistic regressions showed that a greater proportion of vaccinated individuals considered preventive behaviors to be "very important" for reducing the spread of the virus, with higher odds of endorsing prevention behaviors (OR = 5.0, 95% CI = 4.4-5.7) compared to the unvaccinated. Results also showed that vaccinated individuals were more likely than unvaccinated to adhere to most prevention behaviors (ORs = 0.9-2.2, 95% CI = 0.7-3.2) across all survey periods.
Getting vaccinated did not reduce perceived importance of or adherence to preventive behaviors for COVID-19 after vaccine rollout in Canada. The fact that positive (and negative) attitudes and preventive behaviors appear to cluster among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, respectively, suggests that targeted interventions are needed among those resistant to prevention policies in general, with previous evidence pointing to autonomy-supportive strategies as being potentially effective.

PMID:
42573922
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Aug 2026.

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