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COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among adults in immigrant families in California: insights and opportunities to promote equitable access
COVID-19 vaccine attitudes among adults in immigrant families in California: insights and opportunities to promote equitable access
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Gonzalez, Dulce, author
Karpman, Michael, author
Bernstein, Hamutal, author - Contributor(s):
- Urban Institute, issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, April 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- COVID-19 Vaccines -- supply & distribution
Emigrants and Immigrants -- statistics & numerical data
Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data
Poverty -- statistics & numerical data
Vaccination Refusal -- statistics & numerical data
Vulnerable Populations -- statistics & numerical data
California
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- As of March 31, 2021, about 12 million Californians, more than one-quarter of the state’s population, had been fully or partially vaccinated against COVID-19.1 However, in early March, California ranked among the states with the greatest inequities in vaccination coverage in underserved counties (Hughes et al. 2021). To promote equitable vaccine access, state officials announced on March 4 that they would begin allocating 40 percent of vaccines to communities considered vulnerable based on their socioeconomic characteristics.2 Many residents of these areas are people of color and immigrants, whose labor has been vital to keeping the state and its economy running during the pandemic (Dubay et al. 2020; Gelatt 2020).3 In addition to being overrepresented in essential jobs, immigrants have faced other structural risk factors during the pandemic, including higher uninsurance rates, residence in multigenerational housing and dense urban areas, reliance on public transportation, and lower incomes (Artiga and Rae 2020; Clark et al. 2020). Immigrants represent about a quarter of California residents, and about half of adults in the state live in households with at least one immigrant family member (Johnson, Perez, and Mejia 2021). 4 Yet, little is known about vaccine attitudes and access among adults in immigrant families, both in California and nationally. Understanding perceptions of the virus and vaccines among immigrant families, the sources of information they trust, and their connections to the health care system can help state policymakers shape communication and distribution strategies to achieve equitable vaccine access for California’s immigrant communities. Building on previous work on vaccine attitudes among nonelderly adults nationally (Karpman et al. 2021), this brief focuses on attitudes toward the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccines among California adults ages 18 to 64 as of December 2020, before most vaccine distribution began.5 We also examine California adults’ trust in various local sources for information about the vaccines and their types of health insurance coverage and usual sources of health care. We focus on differences between adults in immigrant families, defined as those born outside the US (foreign born) or living with a foreign born family member, and adults not living in immigrant families (who we refer to as “other adults” throughout this brief). To do so, we use data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS). Our estimates only include adults who speak English or Spanish (the languages in which the survey was administered) and do not fully capture the diversity of attitudes and experiences across the state’s immigrant populations. Additionally, attitudes have evolved since the WBNS was fielded in December 2020, as vaccinations have accelerated in recent months.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (14 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918316886606676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918316886606676