Abstract
Two of the three COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United States require two doses to reach full efficacy, as do others available elsewhere in the world. The complete series of multidose COVID-19 vaccines offers stronger protection against infection by SARS-CoV-2 compared to single-dose injections with the same vaccines. Achieving perfect community-level adherence is a challenge in any public health campaign, even in non-pandemic times. Vaccines requiring multiple doses combined with a surge of vaccine hesitancy and misinformation that has been witnessed by the public during the COVID-19 pandemic are exacerbating the challenge of ensuring the world’s population achieves a sufficient level of immunity against COVID-19. Here, we describe the results of our study in which we sought to determine whether completion of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine regimen could be improved by disseminating infographics that explain what the vaccine is and why returning for the second dose is beneficial. Our results show that the proportion of COVID-19 vaccine recipients returning for a second inoculation grew after COVID-19 vaccine infographics were distributed to first-time vaccine recipients. We suggest that extending communication and outreach initiatives into the clinic positively influences the rate of follow-up visits, and that infographics are useful tools to aid and bolster the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines.
Highlights
Patient adherence to prescribed multidose pharmaceuticals is often less than perfect and non-adherence adversely effects outcomes and care [1]
Our results show that the proportion of COVID-19 vaccine recipients returning for a second inoculation grew after COVID-19 vaccine infographics were distributed to first-time vaccine recipients
For COVID-19, incomplete immunization is increasingly problematic in the context of the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, to which partially immunized individuals are more acutely vulnerable compared with individuals who completed multidose series with the same vaccines [5,6]
Summary
Patient adherence to prescribed multidose pharmaceuticals is often less than perfect and non-adherence adversely effects outcomes and care [1]. Non-adherence to medications among patients with chronic illnesses is estimated to be 50% [2], as are rates of non-adherence to multidose vaccines, which are successfully completed by only 50% of individuals [3,4]. For COVID-19, incomplete immunization is increasingly problematic in the context of the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, to which partially immunized individuals are more acutely vulnerable compared with individuals who completed multidose series with the same vaccines [5,6]. Antibody responses increase following the second dose of multidose vaccines, and efficacy against variants of SARS-CoV-2 approaches levels of protection that were first reported for the original SARS-CoV-2 strain when the two-dose regimen was completed [5,6,17,18]
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