Demographic Factors, Attitudes, and Pre-Existing Conditions Impacting COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

We aimed to understand factors that distinguish vaccine hesitancy from early uptake or refusal to inform public health strategies for the next emergent infectious disease pandemic and clinician-patient communication around vaccine decision-making. The study included 10,176 participants of the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine biobank who completed a survey in Summer 2021 which included information on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, attitudes, and uptake. Survey data were linked to electronic health records prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to catalogue pre-existing health conditions. Early COVID-19 vaccine uptake was high (N=9,873, 96.1%), consistent with high health literacy in this population. While many demographic factors, vaccine considerations, and pre-existing conditions distinguished early uptake from hesitancy or refusal ( P <0.05), only two characteristics distinguished the hesitant from the refusal group. Hesitant individuals were more likely than refusers to report good (31.9% versus 25.8%) or fair or poor (16.4% versus 13.4%) health. Also, they were less likely to report trust in scientists as a key factor impacting their decision to receive the COVID-19 vaccine (15.9% versus 25.8%). These findings highlight the urgent need for more tailored public health strategies to reach the distinct group of individuals who remain open to vaccination. Healthcare professionals may be especially well-positioned to address these concerns in clinical conversations by connecting individual health status and pre-existing conditions to the benefits of vaccination.