Abstract

Although Asian-American individuals have higher rates of some vaccine-preventable diseases such as hepatitis B, vaccination rates among them are low compared with those of non-Hispanic White individuals. Most vaccine research looks at Asian-American people as a single category despite large within-group heterogeneity in health-seeking behaviours. Little is known about vaccination coverage among disaggregated Asian-American ethnic subgroups, although such information could inform policies focused on increasing vaccine uptake. Therefore, we aimed to assess vaccination coverage for several vaccines among disaggregated Asian-American subgroups.We examined National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 2015-18 to analyse the vaccination status of Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, other Asian, and non-Hispanic White adults (n=253?626) for seven vaccines recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B (HBV), influenza, tetanus, tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis (Tdap), shingles, and the pneumococcal vaccine. We used NHIS data from 2006-18 (n=880?210) to analyse changes in vaccination rates for each ethnic group over time. We used logistic regression to estimate differences in vaccination rates while controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and health-related variables.Among the seven vaccines, HPV and shingles vaccines had the lowest uptake, whereas Tdap had the highest uptake among all groups. Compared with the non-Hispanic White group, Asian Indians were almost half as likely to receive the HPV vaccine (odds ratio 0·61, 95% CI 0·41-0·92), whereas Filipinos (1·51, 1·02-2·25) and other Asians (1·42, 1·02-1·97) were more likely to receive it. The Filipino (1·50, 1·21-1·88) and other Asian groups (1·42, 1·19-1·71) were more likely to receive the HBV vaccine than the non-Hispanic White group. For the influenza vaccine, the Asian Indian (1·28, 1·05-1·56), Filipino (1·44, 1·17-1·79) and other Asian (1·38, 1·16-1·65) groups were more likely to receive the vaccine than the non-Hispanic White group. For the pneumococcal vaccine, the Chinese (0·57, 0·34-0·94) and other Asian (0·66, 0·47-0·92) groups were less likely to receive the vaccine than the non-Hispanic White group.Among US adults, we found significant disparities in vaccine uptake among different Asian and Asian-American ethnic groups. US policy makers trying to improve vaccine uptake among Asian and Asian-American people could learn from successful international immunisation programmes to develop culturally appropriate interventions to improve vaccine uptake in Asian and Asian-American individuals.None.

View details for DOI 10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00156-5

View details for PubMedID 35362432