Exploring Patient Trust in Healthcare Provider Influenza Vaccine Information and Recommendations in a Medically Underserved Area of Washington State

<b>Background/Objective</b>: Patients have historically trusted healthcare providers to be a reliable source of health information. However, with the recent pandemic and subsequent recovery, understanding and developing patients' trust has become even more important, especially regarding vaccine acceptance. The objective of this work is to explore the current level of trust that rural patients have in their healthcare providers concerning influenza vaccination and related recommendations and its impact on vaccine uptake in a rural county in Washington State. <b>Methods</b>: An anonymous survey was conducted by a survey research center using a random sampling of 3000 addresses for people living in Yakima County in Washington State. Yakima County has a high percentage of people who identify as Hispanic or Latino/a and is a medically underserved area. The survey was designed to evaluate factors influencing the decision to be vaccinated against influenza and the level of trust in information from healthcare providers. <b>Results</b>: Results showed that participants who had been vaccinated against influenza in the previous five years were more likely to trust the advice of their primary care provider (<i>p</i> < 0.001), specialty care provider (<i>p</i> < 0.001), pharmacist (<i>p</i> = 0.02), and nurse (<i>p</i> = 0.002). People who were not vaccinated against influenza in the last five years were statistically more likely to report that a recommendation from a healthcare provider would not make a difference in their decision (<i>p</i> < 0.001). People who were vaccinated were more likely to utilize healthcare providers as a source of information about the influenza vaccine (<i>p</i> < 0.001) and people who were unvaccinated were more likely to use their own personal research as a trusted information source (<i>p</i> = 0.04). <b>Conclusions</b>: Healthcare providers continue to be well regarded and trusted by their patients, especially in rurally located counties, though work still needs to be carried out around influenza vaccination importance messaging. This work identified that all healthcare providers need to work collaboratively to reinforce vaccination guideline recommendations and to both provide education and continue successful access-to-vaccination strategies to promote influenza prevention.