Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
Norton School of Human Ecology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Jul 24;19(7):e0307479. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307479. eCollection 2024.
The Latinx population has the second highest COVID-19 death rate among racial/ethnic groups in the United States and less than half of Latinx youth aged 5-17 years old completed their COVID-19 primary vaccination series as of September 2022. COVID-19 vaccine misinformation detrimentally impacts vaccination rates. In this study, we examined factors that predicted Latinx youth COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and vaccination status.
A community-based sample of 290 Latinx parent and adolescent dyads from a Southwestern metropolitan area of the United States who were recruited to complete an online survey at baseline at T1 (August 2020 -March 2021) and one year later. We tested a longitudinal mediation model in which we examined individual and family factors that would predict youth COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and vaccination status over time.
Youth's pandemic disbelief (i.e., the belief that the COVID-19 pandemic is a conspiracy or not real) predicted greater youth's COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and in turn, a lower likelihood of youth's COVID-19 vaccination. Youth's pandemic disbelief also predicted greater parent's vaccination hesitancy which, in turn, predicted greater youth's vaccination hesitancy and a lower likelihood of COVID-19 vaccination. Parents' pandemic disbelief predicted their own COVID-19 hesitancy, but not youth hesitancy.
Our study findings provide initial evidence that general pandemic disbelief was a significant driver of vaccine hesitancy and vaccination among Latinx families. The study contributes to the limited research investigating COVID-19 vaccination in the Latinx community and among Latinx youth, further aiding how COVID-19 vaccine disparities can be mitigated among racial/ethnic populations.
拉丁裔人口是美国各族裔群体中 COVID-19 死亡率第二高的群体，截至 2022 年 9 月，只有不到一半的 5-17 岁拉丁裔青少年完成了 COVID-19 基础疫苗接种系列。COVID-19 疫苗错误信息对疫苗接种率有不利影响。在这项研究中，我们研究了预测拉丁裔青少年对 COVID-19 疫苗犹豫不决和接种状况的因素。
我们从美国西南部的一个大都市区招募了 290 对拉丁裔父母和青少年进行了一项基于社区的研究，他们被招募来在 T1（2020 年 8 月至 2021 年 3 月）和一年后完成在线调查。我们测试了一个纵向中介模型，我们在该模型中检验了个体和家庭因素，这些因素将随着时间的推移预测青少年对 COVID-19 疫苗的犹豫和接种状况。
青少年对大流行的怀疑（即相信 COVID-19 大流行是阴谋或不真实）预测了青少年对 COVID-19 疫苗的更大犹豫，进而降低了青少年接种 COVID-19 疫苗的可能性。青少年对大流行的怀疑也预测了父母更大的疫苗犹豫，这反过来又预测了青少年更大的疫苗犹豫和 COVID-19 疫苗接种的可能性降低。父母对大流行的怀疑预测了他们自己对 COVID-19 的犹豫，但没有预测青少年的犹豫。
我们的研究结果提供了初步证据，表明一般大流行怀疑是拉丁裔家庭疫苗犹豫和接种的重要驱动因素。该研究为有限的针对拉丁裔社区和拉丁裔青年的 COVID-19 疫苗接种研究做出了贡献，进一步帮助减轻了种族/族裔群体中 COVID-19 疫苗差距。
