The state of COVID-19 vaccine confidence and need in Black individuals in Canada: Understanding the role of sociodemographic factors, health literacy, conspiracy theories, traumatic stressors and racial discrimination.

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Elsevier Science Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 8406899 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1873-2518 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 0264410X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Vaccine Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Publication: Amsterdam, The Netherlands : Elsevier Science
      Original Publication: [Guildford, Surrey, UK] : Butterworths, [c1983-
    • Subject Terms:
      Health Literacy* ; Racism* ; COVID-19*/epidemiology ; COVID-19*/prevention & control; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Middle Aged ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; COVID-19 Vaccines ; Sociodemographic Factors ; Pandemics ; Ontario ; Vaccination
    • Abstract:
      Background: Black communities in Canada have been among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of number of infections and deaths. They are also among those most hesitant about vaccination against COVID-19. However, while a few studies have documented the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, those related to vaccine confidence remain unknown. To respond to this gap, this study aims to investigate factors associated to vaccine confidence in Black individuals in Canada.
      Methods: A total of 2002 participants (1034 women) aged 14 to 89 years old (Mean age = 29.34, SD = 10.13) completed questionnaires assessing sociodemographic information, COVID-19 vaccine confidence and need, health literacy, conspiracy beliefs, major racial discrimination, and traumatic stressors related to COVID-19.
      Results: Results showed an average score of COVID-19 vaccine confidence and need of 33.27 (SD = 7.24), with no significant difference between men (33.48; SD = 7.24) and women (33.08; SD = 7.91), t (1999) = 1.19, p = 0.234. However, there were significant differences according to employment status, migration status, age, inhabited province, spoken language, education, marital status, religion, and income. The linear regression model explained 25.8 % of the variance and showed that health literacy (B = 0.12, p < 0.001) and traumatic stressors related to COVID-19 (B = 0.21, p < .001) predicted COVID-19 vaccine confidence and need positively, while conspiracy beliefs (B = -1.14, p < 0.001) and major racial discrimination (B = -0.20, p = 0.044) predicted it negatively.
      Conclusions: This study showed that building the confidence of Black communities in vaccines requires health education, elimination of racial discrimination in the Canadian society and a focus on certain groups (e.g., young people, those living in Quebec and Ontario). The results also argue in favor of involving community leaders and organizations in the development and implementation of vaccination-related tools, strategies and programs by city, provincial and federal public health agencies.
      Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
      (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine; Confidence and need; Conspiracy theories; Health literacy; Racial discrimination; Traumatic stressors
    • Accession Number:
      0 (COVID-19 Vaccines)
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20231027 Date Completed: 20240214 Latest Revision: 20240214
    • Publication Date:
      20240214
    • Accession Number:
      10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.10.048
    • Accession Number:
      37891050