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Vaccination against COVID-19: factors that influence vaccine hesitancy among an ethnically diverse community in the UK

  • Erica Jane Cook(corresponding author)
    ,
  • Elizabeth Elliott
    ,
  • Alfredo Gaitan
    ,
  • Ifunanya Nduka
    ,
  • Sally Cartwright
    ,
  • Chimeme Egbutah
*Corresponding author for this work
  • Arndale House
Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Open access

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well

Abstract

The UK’s minority ethnic population, despite being at higher risk of COVID-19 and experiencing poorer health outcomes, continue to have lower uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine compared with their white British counterparts. Given the importance of the vaccination programme in improving health outcomes, this research sought to examine the influential factors that impact the decision to accept the COVID-19 vaccination among an ethnically diverse community. A total of 1058 residents from Luton, UK, a large town with an ethnically diverse population, completed a community survey. Questions centred around uptake or individuals’ intentions to accept the offer of COVID-19 vaccination alongside demographics, knowledge, and views on the vaccine. A binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the most significant predictors of vaccine hesitancy, while respondents’ reasons for not getting vaccinated were identified using qualitative content analysis. Findings revealed that age and ethnicity were the only sociodemographic factors to predict vaccine hesitancy. Knowledge of symptoms and transmission routes, alongside ensuring information about COVID-19 was objectively sourced, were all identified as protective factors against vaccine hesitancy. Qualitative analysis revealed that ‘lack of trust in government/authori-ties’ and ‘concern of the speed of vaccine development’ were the most common reasons for non-uptake. This research reinforces the importance of age, ethnicity, and knowledge as influential factors in predicting vaccine hesitancy. Further, this study uncovers some of the barriers of uptake that can be utilised in developing promotional campaigns to reduce vaccine hesitancy in certain sections of the diverse UK population.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

English

Article number

106

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Vaccines (Volume 10, Issue 1)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 07/01/2022
  • Published - 11/01/2022

Publication status

Published - 11/01/2022

Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/625292
  • Scopus: 85122756175

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