Religious Traditions Exhibit Heterogeneous Effects on Vaccination Uptake: A U.S. County-Level Regression Analysis...

Area of Science:

• Sociology of Religion
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Understanding factors influencing public health behaviors like vaccination is crucial.
• Previous research often treated religion monolithically, potentially obscuring nuanced associations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate associations between specific religious traditions and COVID-19 vaccination rates.
• To determine if religious tradition, rather than general religiosity, predicts vaccination uptake.

Main Methods:

• Utilized county-level COVID-19 vaccination data (2021-2022).
• Matched vaccination data with 2020 U.S. Religion Census data for six major traditions.
• Employed negative binomial regression, controlling for covariates.

Main Results:

• Catholic and Mainline Protestant adherence showed significant positive associations with vaccination rates.
• Evangelical Protestant adherence demonstrated a significant negative association with vaccination rates.
• Republican voting preference emerged as a strong predictor across traditions, while Mormon, Black Protestant, and Muslim populations showed no significant associations.

Conclusions:

• Religious traditions significantly influence preventive health behaviors through specific, group-level mechanisms.
• Culturally integrated religious traditions exhibited higher vaccination receptivity compared to those with cultural tension.
• Public health strategies must adopt context-specific approaches for different religious traditions, avoiding a monolithic view of religion.