Spatial Factors Affecting COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the Philippines

Keywords: COVID-19, Philippines, Population density, vaccination rates, social determinants of health
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Spatial Factors Affecting COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in the Philippines
1Sophia Glinoga and 1Chantel Sloan
1Brigham Young University, Department of Public Health

Purpose: The Philippines is a diverse country composed of 17 island regions. The purpose of this project is to determine how the spatial distributions of social determinants of health have affected the COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the Philippines.

Methods: The datasets are from several publicly available databases from the last 10 years aggregated by region. We generated a linear regression model with explanatory variables of poverty rates, educational attainment, and population density and a dependent variable of rates of full vaccination from COVID-19.

Results: The results indicated that COVID-19 vaccination rates are positively correlated with
educational attainment and population density; and negatively correlated with poverty rates. Population density was the only statistically significant variable with a beta coefficient of 0.00031 and a p-value of 0.04. The model R2 was 0.51.

Conclusions: Population density is a good predictor of COVID-19 vaccination rates. Further research is necessary into other social determinants of health that affect local vaccination rates such as religion and trust in government officials. Limitations on vaccination rates appear to be based on rurality rather than education, an indication that interventions need to continue to focus on rural areas.