COVID-19 vaccination coverage by company size and the effects of socioeconomic factors and workplace vaccination in Japan: a cohort study
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Abstract
Background
Vaccination is considered the most effective control measure against COVID-19. Vaccine hesitancy and equitable vaccine allocation are important challenges to disseminating developed vaccines. To promote COVID-19 vaccination coverage, the government of Japan established the workplace vaccination program. However, while it appears that the program was effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy, the program may have hindered the equitable allocation of vaccines because it mainly focused on employees of large companies. We investigated the relationship between company size and COVID-19 vaccination completion status of employees and the impact of the workplace vaccination program on this relationship.
Methods
We conducted an internet-based prospective cohort study from December 2020 (baseline) to December 2021. The data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey. Briefly, 27,036 workers completed the questionnaire at baseline and 18,560 at follow-up. After excluding ineligible respondents, we finally analyzed the data from 15,829 participants. At baseline, the participants were asked about the size of the company they worked for, and at follow-up they were asked about the month in which they received their second COVID-19 vaccine dose and the availability of a company-arranged vaccination opportunity.
Results
In each month throughout the observation period, the odds of having received a second COVID-19 vaccine dose were significantly lower for small-company employees than for large-company employees in the sex- and age-adjusted model. This difference decreased after adjusting for socioeconomic factors, and there was no significant difference after adjusting for the availability of a company-arranged vaccination opportunity.
Conclusions
The workplace vaccination program implemented in Japan to control the COVID-19 pandemic may have been effective in overcoming vaccine hesitancy in workers; however, it may have caused an inequitable allocation of vaccines between companies of different sizes. Because people who worked for small companies were less likely to be vaccinated, it will be necessary to enhance support of vaccination for this population in the event of future infectious disease outbreaks.
Trial registration
Not applicable.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.30.22273203: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Consent: All participants gave informed consent, and the study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (approval number: R2-079 and R3-006).
IRB: All participants gave informed consent, and the study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (approval number: R2-079 and R3-006).Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources All analyses were conducted using Stata (Stata Statistical Software: Release 16; StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA). S…SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.30.22273203: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Consent: All participants gave informed consent, and the study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (approval number: R2-079 and R3-006).
IRB: All participants gave informed consent, and the study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (approval number: R2-079 and R3-006).Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources All analyses were conducted using Stata (Stata Statistical Software: Release 16; StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX, USA). StataCorpsuggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:This study had several limitations. First, the survey was conducted via the internet, so generalizations should be made with caution. However, we attempted to reduce any bias by using cluster sampling with stratification by sex, region, and job type. Second, the study was likely affected by recall bias. The earlier vaccination was completed, the more time had elapsed by the time of the survey, which may have caused recall bias. Third, the timing of the follow-up survey might have affected the responses to the question of vaccination status in the last month, December. If a person received their second vaccine dose in the last week of December (after filling out the follow-up survey), they may have answered “unvaccinated” when asked about their vaccination status in the follow-up survey. However, the impact of this situation was likely small because second-dose vaccination was nearly complete in both the community and workplace programs by the end of November, and less than 1% of the respondents received their second vaccine dose in December.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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