Vaccine Confidence & Media Messaging in African American Communities

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people of color have alarmingly higher rates of morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 in comparison to their White counterparts. These same racial and ethnic disparities exist in North Carolina where non-Hispanic Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino populations are overrepresented in COVID-19 deaths within the state. Despite major efforts to distribute free vaccines to increase vaccine utilization, the total vaccination rate in North Carolina was 52% in 2021. The purpose of this research was to identify contributing factors for vaccine hesitancy and to identify the most effective media messaging methods to increase vaccine confidence among Black/African Americans. This poster will focus on the identified methods of media messaging.

Methods:

In this project, we conducted a literature review, collected quantitative and qualitative data from the community via survey and two focus group sessions to identify actions, trusted media and messaging sources that could influence communities to get vaccinated. In total, there were 284 completed surveys and 11 participants in the focus groups. 35% of study participants were Black/African American and 16% represented all other racial/ethnic identities.

Results:

The survey showed that conventional information sources such as the CDC and health care providers impacted their decision to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. 15% of respondents reported that community and faith leaders influenced their decision. 55% of respondents also reported that messaging from traditional media sources such as radio, newspapers, TV, and billboards were twice as likely to be identified as sources of influence to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine compared to social media platforms (25%) like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Of the traditional media sources, TV news (38%) and TV commercials (19%) were the top sources of influence. Lastly, of the social media platforms identified as influential sources for COVID-19 vaccinations, Instagram (15%), Facebook (12%), and YouTube (11%) were the top reported sources.

Conclusions:

To conclude, we found that traditional media sources are the most trusted and led to higher vaccine confidence compared to social media. Through the focus groups we learned that vaccine messaging should be tailored to specific populations. Furthermore, dissemination of messages should be facilitated through authentic community engagement. Identifying and amplifying voices of trusted messengers in the community is key to increasing vaccine confidence among Black/African Americana.

Implications for research and/or practice:

Our findings were consistent with the literature review that vaccine confidence is low in Black/African American communities. This is due to more Black/African American participants reporting as undecided about receiving the vaccine (20%) compared to their White counterparts (6%). This research will aid other community-based organizations in their efforts to disseminate media messaging on vaccine confidence among Black/African American communities.