Identifying geographic-specific priority groups for COVID-19 booster vaccine uptake from a countywide population-based vaccine record dataset

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine, booster, sociodemographic factors, Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR)
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

It has been proven that vaccination is the most effective way a person could help prevent COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. The purpose of this study is to identify geographic-specific priority groups for COVID-19 booster vaccine uptake from a population-based vaccine record dataset in Nueces County, located in south Texas with substantial sociodemographic diversity. The dataset was obtained from the Nueces County Public Health Department which contained all residents over the age of twelve that received at least one COVID-19 vaccine from December 2020 through the end of August 2022. We included a total of 228,097 residents, which represents 65% of the total respective population of Nueces County. To investigate how the impact of sociodemographic factors on COVID-19 non-boosted residents varied over the county, we applied Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). The percentage of non-boosted individuals among the fully vaccinated (different age and racial/ethnic groups) was the response variable. Various factors (socio-demographic status; household composition and disability; minority status and language; and housing type and transportation) from the latest 2020 Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) from CDC were used as the explanatory variables. According to the results individuals living below the poverty line, without a high school diploma, males, Hispanics, youth, and seniors are less likely to receive booster shots. Our findings will help determine geographic-specific priority groups for COVID-19 booster vaccine uptake, which will contribute to the evaluation, assistance, and improvement of our community’s COVID-19 booster vaccine uptake rate.