COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: Associations with gender, race, and source of health information

Vaccinations for COVID-19 are being distributed, yet vaccine hesitance is placing many people at risk for infection, negative outcomes, and compromising public health. Given primary care clinics are where people most often interact with health care providers, understanding factors associated with this hesitance may help providers in integrated primary care settings best address this hesitance.

Between September and November of 2020, a survey was sent to all primary care patients within a large southern California health system, with over 10,000 responding (22% response rate). Survey items included sociodemographic variables, level of vaccine hesitance, "proximity to COVID" (e.g., direct exposure to COVID-19 and consequences), as well as a patient's primary source of health information (e.g., traditional news, social media, etc.). Responses assessed the strength of hesitance.

Results showed that while 78% of participants "strongly" believed vaccines generally are a good way to protect from illness, only 51% reported strong willingness to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Consistent with previous surveys, younger patients were more hesitant to get vaccinated, as were people of color. Unique to this survey was the finding that those relying on social media, faith-based organizations, or family/friends for health information had the greatest vaccine hesitance.

While our patient sample was less hesitant than other U.S. adult samples previously reported in the literature, our data suggest that targeting those patients who report reliance on nontraditional health information sources should be approached by primary care teams, including behavioral health providers, to address vaccine hesitancy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).