The geography of COVID-19 vaccine completion by age in North Carolina, U.S.

Autor: Sandborn H; Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America., Delamater P; Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.; Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America., Brewer NT; Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America., Gilkey MB; Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America., Emch M; Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.; Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.; Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 Aug 09; Vol. 19 (8), pp. e0304812. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 09 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304812
Abstrakt: Background: Geographic variation in COVID-19 vaccination can create areas at higher risk of infection, complications, and death, exacerbating health inequalities. This ecological study examined geographic patterns of COVID-19 vaccine completion, using age and sociodemographic characteristics as possible explanatory mechanisms.
Methods and Findings: Using 2020-2022 data from the North Carolina COVID-19 Vaccination Management System and U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, at the Zip code-level, we evaluated completion of the primary COVID-19 vaccine series across age groups. We examined geographic clustering of age-specific completion by Zip code and evaluated similarity of the age-specific geographic patterns. Using unadjusted and adjusted spatial autoregressive models, we examined associations between sociodemographic characteristics and age-specific vaccine completion. COVID-19 vaccine completion was moderately geographically clustered in younger groups, with lower clustering in older groups. Urban areas had clusters of higher vaccine completion. Younger and middle-aged groups were the most similar in completion geographically, while the oldest group was most dissimilar to other age groups. Higher income was associated with higher completion in adjusted models across all age groups, while a higher percent of Black residents was associated with higher completion for some groups.
Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccination completion is more variable among younger age groups in North Carolina, and it is higher in urban areas with higher income. Higher completion in areas with more Black residents may reflect the success of racial equity efforts in the state. The findings show a need to reach younger populations and lower income areas that were not prioritized during early vaccination distribution.
Competing Interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: Dr. Brewer has served as a paid advisor to the CDC, World Health Organization, Sanofi, Novavax, and Merck.
(Copyright: © 2024 Sandborn et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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