Sociocultural Factors Related to COVID Vaccine Status in African Americans

Despite the widespread vaccine rollout, vaccine hesitancy remains high among African Americans. This study explored vaccine hesitancy, intention, and receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine using secondary data from The Association of Black Psychologists’ multi-state needs assessment of 2480 African American adults. The first aim was to examine the relationship between cultural mistrust, general COVID worry, and race-related COVID worry to vaccine status. The second aim was to examine whether cultural mistrust moderated the relationships between race-related COVID worry and general COVID worry to vaccine status. More cultural mistrust was associated with reduced odds of receiving or intending to take the vaccine relative to the vaccine hesitancy group. Greater general COVID-19 worries increased the odds of intending to take the vaccine among the intent group compared to the vaccine hesitancy group. Moreover, more race-related COVID concerns were associated with greater odds of vaccine receipt versus vaccine hesitancy. There were no significant moderating effects. The findings suggest that strategies are needed that address sociocultural factors related to reducing vaccine hesitancy.