Social determinants of flu vaccine uptake among racial/ethnic minorities in the United States

Ashley Sanders-Jackson; Mariaelena Gonzalez; Robyn B Adams; Nancy Rhodes

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101516

Social determinants of flu vaccine uptake among racial/ethnic minorities in the United States

Prev Med Rep. 2021 Aug 12:24:101516. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101516. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Ashley Sanders-Jackson¹, Mariaelena Gonzalez^{2

3}, Robyn B Adams¹, Nancy Rhodes¹

Affiliations

¹ Dept. of Advertising and Public Relations, Michigan State University, 404 Wilson Road, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA.
² Department of Public Health, University of California, Merced, 5200 Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA.
³ Health Science Research Institute, University of California, Merced, 5200 Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA.

Abstract

Research on the social determinants of vaccine uptake often occur between racial/ethnic groups and not within groups. Though minoritized individuals face inequalities across the board, these are also not evenly distributed amongst minoritized individuals within groups. Using the National Health Interview Survey data, we examined disparities in flu vaccine uptake across racial/ethnic groups in the United States (US). We examined (a) NH (non-Hispanic) White (n = 32,655), (b) NH Asian (n = 2335), (c) NH African American (n = 5137), and (d) Hispanic (n = 5718) respondents who lived in the United States using the combined 2017 and 2018. We used multivariable logistic regression to predict flu vaccination (yes/no) both in models comparing racial/ethnic groups and within groups. Less than 50% of any of the four major racial/ethnic groups in the US received a flu vaccination in 2017-18. Flu vaccine uptake varied within racial and ethnic groups. These results suggest that increasing vaccination may require a complex, multi-faceted perspective that considers subgroups more directly.

Keywords: NHIS; Social determinants of health; Structural inequality; Vaccination.