BACKGROUND:
Vaccination coverage depends on the level of public trust in vaccination and the healthcare system, decline of which can negatively impact vaccination coverage. Vaccination decision-making is linked to vaccination literacy (VL), which includes knowledge, motivation, and skills necessary to search for, understand, evaluate, and use vaccination information.

OBJECTIVE:
to study VL among the population in three regions of the Russian Federation.

METHODS:
A survey of the population aged 36-76 years (n=2610) was conducted in three regions of the Russian Federation: Arkhangelsk, Altai, and Sverdlovsk regions at a random representative sample of the population. The survey used an adapted version of the Vaccination Health Literacy-2019 (HLS19-VAC) questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization Action Network on Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL).

RESULTS:
The survey revealed that 25.0% of the population had a low or problematic VL, 56.4% had a sufficient level, and 18.5% had an excellent level. The most difficulties were related to the understanding at what age and what types of vaccines are required. People with low levels of VL were less inclined to vaccinate and more often believed it was better to be ill than to be vaccinated (32.8%), mistakenly believed that vaccines can cause the diseases they vaccinate against (30.2%), and believed that vaccination overloads the immune system (23.9%).

CONCLUSIONS:
Despite the generally positive attitude of the adult population toward vaccination, differences were identified in beliefs and skills for managing vaccination information. To improve vaccination adherence, measures are needed to improve VL levels, taking into account contextual factors, including information and reminders about the need for vaccination, creating convenient conditions for vaccination for the working population, and simplifying the registration process.