S827 Assessing COVID-19 Vaccine Intention Among IBD Patients in an Urban University Tertiary Care Practice

Abstract

Introduction: Widespread administration of COVID-19 vaccination can potentially limit the spread and devastation of infection in the United States. Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19, there continues to be multifaceted hesitancy towards it. In this present study, we evaluated our inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patient cohort’s acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine at an urban university medical center. Methods: A retrospective chart review using an electronic medical record was conducted of all IBD patients seen from 1/1/2016 to 1/31/2021 by gastroenterologists at an urban, tertiary care, university medical center. Patient gender, age, race, IBD subtype, and medication regimen were obtained. Phone-based surveys were conducted to determine patients’ acceptance of COVID vaccine. Patients were excluded if they were unable to be contacted or there was missing demographic data. A confidential database was created using Microsoft Excel. Fischer exact tests were used with statistical significance set at p< 0.05. This study was approved by the university IRB. Results: 218 of 458 (47.6%) medical records were reviewed. There were 127 (58.3%) women, 91 (41.7%) men, with mean age of 44.4 years. 123 (56.4%) had ulcerative colitis, 93 (42.7%) Crohn’s disease, 2 (0.9%) with indeterminate colitis. 91 (41.7%) were on biologic therapy. 195 (89.4%) of our IBD patient cohort received or intended to receive the COVID vaccine. There was no significant difference in the rate of vaccine acceptance based upon age (p=0.212), gender (p=1.000), IBD type (p=0.150) or medication regimen (p=0.623). Conclusion: The findings of this study are reassuring in demonstrating similar intention of vaccine receipt across age, gender, disease subtype, and treatment regimen in IBD patients. It is also important to highlight that vaccination intent is significantly higher among IBD patient cohort than the general US population (defined as roughly 50% in December 2020). While this study is limited due to size, the rate of patient vaccine acceptance is encouraging since guidelines strongly support vaccination of IBD patients regardless of medication regimen. Further research is warranted to determine whether significant correlations exist between demographic groups and vaccine concerns.