• Med. J. Aust. · Jan 2025

    Knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and attitudes to and behaviours regarding COVID-19 and influenza vaccination: a survey.

    • Shea Spierings, Victor M Oguoma, Anthony Shakeshaft, Jim Walker, Maree Toombs, and James S Ward.
    • Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD.
    • Med. J. Aust. 2025 Jan 13; 222 (1): 303730-37.

    ObjectivesTo assess Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's knowledge about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, and their attitudes to and behaviours regarding COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations.Study DesignWeb-based survey.SettingAustralia (excluding the Northern Territory), 1 October 2021 to 31 May 2022.ParticipantsConvenience sample of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 16 years or older living in Australia.Main Outcome MeasuresProportions of respondents who reported knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines, and attitudes to and behaviours regarding COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations.ResultsA total of 530 people provided valid survey responses; their median age was 27 years (interquartile range, 23-38 years), 255 (48%) were from urban areas, and 309 (58%) were men. Of the 480 participants (91%) who provided complete survey questions (including sex and location information), larger proportion of men than women believed COVID-19 vaccines were very or extremely trustworthy (219, 79% v 124, 61%) and very or extremely effective (212, 76% v 138, 68%). The prevalence of COVID-19 vaccination was lower among respondents aged 60 years or older than among those aged 16-29 years (adjusted prevalence ration [PR], 0.81; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66-0.99). After adjusting for socio-demographic factors, the association between intention to receive the influenza vaccine and receiving the COVID-19 vaccine was statistically significant (adjusted PR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.09-1.27).ConclusionThe high levels of trust in COVID-19 vaccines and their effectiveness indicate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are confident about their safety and efficacy and understand the importance of vaccination. The findings also highlight a positive attitude to vaccination and a commitment to preventive health measures among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.© 2024 The Author(s). Medical Journal of Australia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of AMPCo Pty Ltd.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…