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Survey: About 1 in 4 in Region Want COVID-19 Vaccine But Haven't Gotten It or Are Undecided

Sep 9, 2021

Vaccination status has become critical lately to get or stay employed, attend an event or determine if you should quarantine after exposure to COVID-19. To help inform regional efforts, Interact for Health recently conducted a survey to understand attitudes around vaccination. Results from the web-based survey, part of the Greater Cincinnati COVID-19 Health Issues Survey, were released today to partners during a virtual event.

When the survey was conducted July 7-16, nearly 6 in 10 Greater Cincinnati adults (56%) reported they had received a COVID-19 vaccine and an additional 7% reported they definitely will get the vaccine. About 2 in 10 (18%) hadn't decided whether they will get the vaccine. About the same percentage (19%) said they definitely will not get the vaccine. 

"These data show that the debate about COVID-19 vaccines is not simply about favoring or opposing the shot," said Ross Meyer, VP of Strategy with Interact for Health. "Many still want to get the vaccine or are undecided. We need to help our friends, family members and coworkers who feel this way find reliable information about vaccination and get help with transportation and child care so they can take the time to get vaccinated."

Intent to get the vaccine among African Americans in the region was particularly of interest. Only 24% of African American adults reported they received a vaccine. However, 34% of African American adults said they definitely will get the vaccine, much higher than the 3% of white adults. This suggests there are African Americans who would like to get vaccinated but haven't yet, providing an opportunity for additional community outreach.

Reasons for not getting vaccinated

Respondents who were not yet vaccinated were asked to rank how important a variety of reasons were in their decision not to get the shot. The following reasons were ranked as very important: the desire to confirm the safety of the vaccines (72%), concern about side effects (64%) and concern about the timeline for developing the vaccines (64%). Respondents were able to select more than one concern as very important in their decision making.  

Health care providers the preferred source for information

National data have demonstrated that people are receptive to vaccine information from health care providers. This survey found similar results, showing that 55% of respondents trust their physicians a great deal to provide reliable information about the COVID-19 vaccine, followed by pharmacists (42%) and local health departments (38%).

"Doctors, nurses and pharmacists have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response," said Christa Hyson, Assistant Director, Emergency Response and Public Information Officer with the Health Collaborative. "Many of them have also lent their support to efforts to increase community vaccination. As we continue our efforts to get 80% of those eligible in our region vaccinated, we need health care providers to encourage vaccination at every encounter and be ready to refer their patients for vaccination as needed."

Common barriers to vaccination

The survey showed that efforts to make vaccination accessible have made a difference. A majority of Greater Cincinnati adults reported it is very easy to find a place to get a COVID-19 vaccine that is convenient for them (70%), a place that they trust (68%) or a place that is open at a time that fits their schedule (60%). African American adults and those living in poverty are less likely to think it was very easy to find a vaccine. 

Additional survey results can be found at https://www.interactforhealth.org/about-covid-19-survey/. A list of common questions and answers about vaccination is available at https://www.interactforhealth.org/covid-19-vaccine-faq/. To search for a vaccine provider by location, brand and a variety of other factors, visit the interactive map at https://healthcollab.org/vaccine-info/

About the survey

The web-based Greater Cincinnati COVID-19 Health Issues Survey was conducted between July 7 and July 16, 2021, to understand adults' COVID-19 vaccination status, their intent to get the vaccine, and barriers and facilitators to vaccination. A random sample of 502 adults from Greater Cincinnati was interviewed using an online survey platform. To correct for potential biases, data were weighted by age, race, sex, education and geographic location using U.S. Census data. Because the probability of selection for respondents is unknown, measures of sampling error and response rates cannot be calculated. The survey is a project of Interact for Health and was conducted by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati. For more information, please visit http://www.interactforhealth.org/about-covid-19-survey.

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