Russ Savanah, Bramley John, Liu Yu, Boyce Irena
Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
UR Medicine Quality Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Apr 21;11(4):876. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11040876.
Inequities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake by racialized groups have been persistent throughout the vaccine rollout, leading to disparate burdens of COVID-19 outcomes. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine COVID-19 vaccine uptake across racialized groups within the nine-county Finger Lakes region of New York State in December 2021. Cross-matching and validation were performed across multiple health information systems for the region to reduce the percentage of vaccine records with missing race information. Additionally, imputation techniques were applied to address the remaining missing values. Uptake of ≥1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by race was then examined. By December 2021, 828,551 individuals in our study region had received ≥1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with ~25% having missing race values. Cross-matching and validation within existing records reduced this to ~7%. Uptake of ≥1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine was greatest among individuals identifying as White, followed by those identifying as Black. The application of imputation techniques reduced the percent of missing race values to <1%; however, this reduction did not significantly change the distribution of vaccine uptake across race groups. Utilization of relevant health information systems, accompanied by imputation techniques, stands to greatly reduce the burden of missing race data within vaccine registries, facilitating accurate targeted interventions to mitigate inequities in COVID-19 vaccination.
在整个新冠疫苗接种过程中，不同种族群体在新冠疫苗接种方面的不平等现象一直存在，导致新冠疫情结果的负担存在差异。2021年12月，在纽约州九县手指湖地区开展了一项横断面研究，以确定不同种族群体的新冠疫苗接种情况。对该地区多个健康信息系统进行交叉匹配和验证，以减少种族信息缺失的疫苗记录百分比。此外，应用插补技术来处理剩余的缺失值。然后按种族检查了至少接种1剂新冠疫苗的情况。到2021年12月，我们研究区域内有828551人接种了至少1剂新冠疫苗，约25%的人种族值缺失。在现有记录中进行交叉匹配和验证后，这一比例降至约7%。自我认定为白人的个体中至少接种1剂新冠疫苗的比例最高，其次是自我认定为黑人的个体。插补技术的应用将种族值缺失的百分比降至<1%；然而，这一减少并未显著改变各种族群体疫苗接种的分布情况。利用相关健康信息系统并辅以插补技术，有望大幅减轻疫苗登记中种族数据缺失的负担，促进采取准确的针对性干预措施，以减轻新冠疫苗接种中的不平等现象。
