Racial/ethnic disparities in influenza risk perception and vaccination intention among Pima County residents in Arizona

ABSTRACT

While influenza cases in Arizona have nearly tripled since 2018, vaccination rates continue to lag. Statewide, Hispanics and African Americans had the lowest vaccination rates despite having higher influenza infection rates than Whites. Given Arizona’s racial influenza vaccination disparity and the general increase in vaccination hesitancy due to COVID-19, the purpose of this study was to better understand the influences of seasonal influenza vaccination in Arizona during the COVID-19 pandemic using qualitative methods. Findings from this study revealed that many participants were motivated to get the influenza vaccine to protect their family and close friends. The heightened concern for COVID-19 prompted some Hispanic/Latino focus group discussion participants to consider getting vaccinated. However, many Hispanic/Latino participants also expressed that they stopped getting influenza vaccine due to negative vaccination experiences or concern about sickness following immunization. African American participants primarily discussed receiving the vaccine as part of their routine health visit. Compared to other races, more White participants believed that vaccination was unimportant because they were healthy, and the people they interacted with never got sick. Distinct factors influence risk perception and vaccination intention across different racial/ethnic groups. Effective interventions can account for these factors and be tailored to the target population to maximize vaccination uptake.

KEYWORDS:

• Influenza
• vaccination intention
• COVID-19
• qualitative research
• Arizona

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the following groups and organizations for supporting this research: the Pima County Health Department of Arizona, Paisano Unidos, and The University of Arizona Evaluation Group for Analysis of Data and The University of Arizona College of Linguistics. Special thanks to Mary Kinkade at the Pima County Health Department and the members of The University of Arizona Alliance for Vaccine Literacy – Jacob Marczak, Veena Raghuraman, and Ava Neddermeyer for their work on this project.

Author contributions

CMPV, PM, MK, KK, BK, and MBN conceptualized and developed the study. NMM, MBN, KJ, SV, KK, BK and PM were involved in data collection. NMM, PM, PM, LBG, MBN, SV, KJ contributed to data analysis and interpretation. NMM drafted the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed the draft of the manuscript and approved the final version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health Dean’s Fund; the Western Region Public Health Training Center, Tucson, AZ; the Pima County Health Department, Tucson, AZ; and the University of Arizona Graduate Professional Student Committee. PM is partially supported by the GHES training grant from NIH/FIC under Award Number D43 TW010540 and NIH/NIA R03AG069796-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.