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Article History

Received: 11 July 2024

Accepted: 19 August 2025

First Online: 8 October 2025

Competing interests

: Andra Siibak was a member of the Editorial Board of this journal at the time of acceptance for publication. The manuscript was assessed in line with the journal’s standard editorial processes, including its policy on competing interests. The other author(s) of the manuscript declare no competing interests.

: All research activities, including study design and data collection methods, were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and complied with local regulations. According to national law (Personal Data Protection Act, passed 12.12.2018), ethical approval is not requested when the study involving human subjects (1) does not collect sensitive personal data, within the meaning of law, including health data; (2) all the involved participants were adults who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study and provided their written informed consent; (3) the findings are provided in a non-personalised form; (4) the research is not intended to request access to national databases; (5) there is no intention to collect and link special types of data. All the above points are applicable in the context of the current study. The current study is not interdisciplinary in its nature, i.e., we did not collect personal health data but were interested in obtaining information about individuals’ subjective opinions on the topic of vaccines and their vaccine-related information needs. The authors conducted the study following national scientific practices and after consulting with national ethics experts, relying upon their long-time experiences in carrying out research involving human subjects and extensive knowledge of conducting ethical research.

: Written informed consent was meticulously obtained from all participants involved in the study prior to any data collection, specifically between 23 February and 1 July 2024. Before participation, all participants were comprehensively briefed about the objectives and procedures of the study, the confidentiality of their responses, the absence of risk in the study, and their right to withdraw at any time without any consequences. Participants were explicitly informed that involvement was entirely voluntary, withdrawal was permitted at any time without penalty, and data would be used anonymously for scientific purposes only. Contact information of the researchers was also provided, allowing participants to address any questions or concerns before, during, or after the study. Throughout this process, participants were given ample opportunity to ask any questions and receive clear, comprehensible answers. Only upon confirming their full understanding and voluntary agreement did they sign the informed consent form. All collected data were anonymized to protect participant identity and ensure confidentiality.