Opposing Role of Trust as a Modifier of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in an Indigenous Population
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Department of Economics and UHERO, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
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Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
3
Department of Pediatrics, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: François Meurens
Vaccines 2022, 10(6), 968; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10060968
Received: 13 May 2022
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Revised: 14 June 2022
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Accepted: 14 June 2022
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Published: 17 June 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccination and Compliance/Hesitancy)
Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and remain significantly under-vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. To understand vaccine hesitancy, we surveyed 1124 adults residing in a region with one of the lowest vaccination rates in Hawaii during our COVID-19 testing program. Probit regression analysis revealed that race/ethnicity was not directly associated with the probability of vaccine uptake. Instead, a higher degree of trust in official sources of COVID-19 information increased the probability of vaccination by 20.68%, whereas a higher trust in unofficial sources decreased the probability of vaccination by 12.49% per unit of trust. These results revealed a dual and opposing role of trust on vaccine uptake. Interestingly, NHPIs were the only racial/ethnic group to exhibit a significant positive association between trust in and consumption of unofficial sources of COVID-19 information, which explained the vaccine hesitancy observed in this indigenous population. These results offer novel insight relevant to COVID-19 mitigation efforts in minority populations.
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Keywords:
COVID-19; health disparities; trust; sources of information
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Juarez, R.; Phankitnirundorn, K.; Okihiro, M.; Maunakea, A.K. Opposing Role of Trust as a Modifier of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in an Indigenous Population. Vaccines 2022, 10, 968. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10060968
AMA Style
Juarez R, Phankitnirundorn K, Okihiro M, Maunakea AK. Opposing Role of Trust as a Modifier of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in an Indigenous Population. Vaccines. 2022; 10(6):968. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10060968
Chicago/Turabian StyleJuarez, Ruben, Krit Phankitnirundorn, May Okihiro, and Alika K. Maunakea. 2022. "Opposing Role of Trust as a Modifier of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in an Indigenous Population" Vaccines 10, no. 6: 968. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10060968
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