A Systematic Investigation of American Vaccination Preference via Historical Data

Abstract

While COVID-19 vaccines are generally available, not all people receive vaccines. To reach herd immunity, most of a population must be vaccinated. It is, thus, important to identify factors influencing people’s vaccination preferences, as knowledge of these preferences allows for governments and health programs to increase their vaccine coverage more effectively. Fortunately, vaccination data were collected by U.S. Census Bureau in partnership with the CDC via the Household Pulse Survey (HPS) for Americans. This study presents the first analysis of the 24 vaccination datasets collected by the HPS from January 2021 to May 2022 for 250 million respondents of different ages, genders, sexual orientations, races, education statuses, marital statuses, household sizes, household income levels, and resources used for spending needs, and with different reasons for not receiving or planning to receive a vaccine. Statistical analysis techniques, including an analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey multiple comparisons test, and hierarchical clustering (HC), were implemented to analyze the HPS vaccination data in the R language. It was found that sexual orientation, gender, age, and education had statistically significant influences on the vaccination rates. In particular, the gay/lesbian group showed a higher vaccination rate than the straight group; the transgender group had a lower vaccination rate than either the female or the male groups; older respondents showed greater preference for vaccination; respondents with higher education levels also preferred vaccination. As for the other factors that were not significant enough to influence vaccinations in the ANOVA, notable trends were found. Asian Americans had higher vaccination rates than other races; respondents from larger household sizes had a lower chance of getting vaccinated; the unmarried group showed the lowed vaccination rate in the marital category; the respondents depending on borrowed money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) showed a lower vaccination rate than people with regular incomes. Concerns regarding the side-effects and the safety of the vaccines were the two major reasons for vaccination hesitance at the beginning of the pandemic, while having no trust in the vaccines and no trust in the government became more common in the later stage of the pandemic. The findings in this study can be used by governments or organizations to improve their vaccination campaigns or methods of combating future pandemics.