COVID-positive patients asked about intent to vaccinate in local study

Third-year medical students Sarah E. Bouslog, left, and Mary M. Vansant presented an abstract at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Baltimore in April 2022. The study examined the intent to get vaccinated among COVID-19 positive patients.

In 2020 and 2021, researchers at the USA College of Medicine interviewed hundreds of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Mobile about their intent to get vaccinated for the virus in a study led by Casey L. Daniel, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of family medicine and director of epidemiology and public health.

Looking for trends among subgroups, the researchers asked questions over a year’s time, covering demographics, severity of illness, hospital stays and underlying health conditions. They found that women, Black patients and those with higher incomes were significantly less likely to say they planned to get the vaccine – findings that could guide future outreach efforts to increase vaccination.

“We concluded that multilevel interventions are needed to address vaccine hesitancy for the general population and targeted strategies should be implemented to overcome hesitancy barriers for these specific subgroups,” said Sarah Bouslog, a third-year medical student at the USA College of Medicine and one of two students who presented an abstract on the findings at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Baltimore in April. The abstract was selected for a “Live Research Spotlight” presentation at the prestigious national conference.

The researchers interviewed 513 people who tested positive for COVID-19 through USA Health from April 2020 to May 2021. Asked whether they intended to get the COVID-19 vaccine, 36% of participants said yes, 38% said no, and 25% were unsure.

The data showed that women were less likely than men to say they would get the vaccine; Black people were less likely than white people, and individuals with higher reported annual incomes ($100,000 to $150,000) also were less likely to say they planned to get vaccinated.

The researchers, however, found no significant correlation between vaccine hesitancy and severity of the participants’ illness. “Variables that were not significantly associated with the intent to vaccinate were the type of acute COVID-19 symptoms, hospital or ICU admission, diagnosed co-morbidities and the duration of acute COVID symptoms,” said Mary Vansant, a third-year medical student who also presented the study findings in Baltimore.

Other authors on the study included medical students Juan Pardo, Madeline Tucker and Anna Wright; and USA Health researchers Grace Sullivan, Chelsea Green McGowen and Jenna James.