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The COVID-19 Vaccine Conundrum - An Assessment of Vaccine Hesitancy Amongst Patients at a Federally Qualified Health Center

Grant number: unknown

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Key facts

  • Disease

    COVID-19

  • Principal Investigator

    Unspecified Letoia Clark

  • Research Location

    United States of America

  • Lead Research Institution

    N/A

  • Research Priority Alignment

    N/A

  • Research Category

    Policies for public health, disease control & community resilience

  • Research Subcategory

    Vaccine/Therapeutic/ treatment hesitancy

  • Special Interest Tags

    N/A

  • Study Type

    Non-Clinical

  • Clinical Trial Details

    N/A

  • Broad Policy Alignment

    Pending

  • Age Group

    Adults (18 and older)

  • Vulnerable Population

    Unspecified

  • Occupations of Interest

    Unspecified

Abstract

Background: With three COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for emergency use in the US, vaccine hesitancy has the potential to sabotage COVID-19 vaccination efforts and be detrimental to establishing herd immunity. In order to realize the extent of vaccine hesitancy, an adequate understanding of the role that self-identified barriers and epidemiologic factors may play is timely and important. Objective(s): The objectives of this study were to 1) determine if there is a correlation between vaccine hesitancy and epidemiologic factors, and 2) identify perceived patient-reported barriers associated with receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: A written questionnaire was utilized to collect data from eligible patients over a 15- week period between October 2020 and February 2021. A combination of non-parametric tests and descriptive statistics were used to analyze this data. Results: A majority of patients were either very strongly in support of (28.2%) or very strongly against (29.7%) receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Notable findings included the comparison of patients with advanced degrees being more likely to get vaccinated (48.1%) to those without advanced degrees, who were more unlikely to get vaccinated (38.8%) (p = 0.002). There was also a significant difference between races regarding their interest in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Blacks were much more likely to answer very strongly against receiving the vaccine compared to Caucasians and Hispanics (p <0.001). The most reported barrier to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine was concern for side effects. Conclusion: This study provides a glimpse into possible correlations between vaccine hesitancy and epidemiologic factors as well as patient-reported barriers to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. With widespread vaccination underway, it is imperative that we learn about and address concerns about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine to ensure herd immunity can adequately be achieved.