• Pearl A McElfish, James P Selig, Aaron J Scott, Brett Rowland, Don E Willis, Sharon Reece, Sheena CarlLee, Michael D Macechko, and Sumit K Shah.
• College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest, Fayetteville, AR, USA. pamcelfish@uams.edu.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2023 Mar 1; 38 (4): 841847841-847.

BackgroundVaccines provide protection against numerous diseases that can cause serious illness and death. However, vaccine hesitancy threatens to undermine progress in reducing preventable diseases and illness. Vaccine hesitancy has been shown to vary by sociodemographic characteristics. However, studies examining associations between healthcare access and vaccine hesitancy are lacking.ObjectiveUsing a statewide random sample of Arkansas adults, we examined the relationship between general vaccine hesitancy and healthcare access.DesignFrom July 12 to 30, 2021, participants were contacted by landlines and cellular phones using random digit dialing.ParticipantsA total of 1500 Arkansas adults were surveyed. Black/African American and Hispanic/Latinx adults were oversampled to ensure adequate representation. The survey had a cooperation rate of 20%.Main MeasuresThe dependent variable was an ordinal measure of general vaccine hesitancy. Age, gender, race, education, relationship status, and rural/urban residence were included in the model. Healthcare access was measured across four domains: (1) health insurance coverage; (2) having a primary care provider (PCP); (3) forgoing care due to cost; and (4) time since last routine checkup. The relationship between general vaccine hesitancy and healthcare access was modeled using ordinal logistic regression, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics.Key ResultsMean age was 48.5 years, 51.1% were women, 28% reported a race other than White, and 36.3% held a bachelor's degree or higher. Those with a PCP and those with health insurance had approximately two-thirds the odds of being more hesitant ([OR=0.63, CI=0.47, 0.84] and [OR=0.68; CI=0.49, 0.94]) than those without a PCP and those without health insurance. Participants reporting a routine checkup in the last 2 years were almost half as likely to be more hesitant than those reporting a checkup more than 2 years prior (OR=0.58; CI=0.43, 0.79).ConclusionsResults suggest improving access to health insurance, PCPs, and routine preventative care services may be critical to reducing vaccine hesitancy.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society of General Internal Medicine.

15 keywords...

hide…