Uptake of COVID-19 vaccination in people with blood cancer: Population-level cohort study of 12 million patients in England

Abstract

Background: People with blood cancers have increased risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 and were prioritised for vaccination.

Methods: Individuals in the QResearch database aged 12 years and above on 1st December 2020 were included in the analysis. Kaplan-Meier analysis described time to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in people with blood cancer and other high-risk disorders. Cox regression was used to identify factors associated with vaccine uptake in people with blood cancer.

Results: The analysis included 12,274,948 individuals, of whom 97,707 had a blood cancer diagnosis. 92% of people with blood cancer received at least one dose of vaccine, compared to 80% of the general population, but there was lower uptake of each subsequent vaccine dose (31% for fourth dose). Vaccine uptake decreased with social deprivation (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.70, 0.74 for most deprived versus most affluent quintile for first vaccine). Compared with White groups, uptake of all vaccine doses was significantly lower in people of Pakistani and Black ethnicity, and more people in these groups remain unvaccinated.

Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccine uptake declines following second dose and there are ethnic and social disparities in uptake in blood cancer populations. Enhanced communication of benefits of vaccination to these groups is needed.

Keywords: Blood cancer; COVID-19 vaccine; Health inequalities; Vaccination uptake.

Fig. 1

Kaplan–Meier analyses of first and fourth COVID-19 vaccine uptake in people with blood cancer and other disorders, immunocompromise, and the general population, in all age groups and those 60 years and over only.