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. 2023:7:100188.
doi: 10.1016/j.jmh.2023.100188. Epub 2023 Mar 26.

Vaccines for all: A formative evaluation of a multistakeholder community-engaged COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinic for migrant communities

Linda E Holdbrook  1 , Nour Hassan  1 , Sarah K Clarke  2 , Annalee Coakley  3   4 , Eric Norrie  5 , Mussie Yemane  1 , Michael R Youssef  1 , Adanech Sahilie  1 , Minnella Antonio  1 , Edna Ramirez Cerino  1 , Sachin R Pendharkar  6 , Deidre Lake  7 , Denise L Spitzer  8 , Kevin Pottie  9   10 , Samuel T Edwards  11   12 , Gabriel E Fabreau  13   14   15
Affiliations

Vaccines for all: A formative evaluation of a multistakeholder community-engaged COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinic for migrant communities

Linda E Holdbrook et al. J Migr Health. 2023.

Abstract

Background: Racialized, low-income, and migrant populations experience persistent barriers to vaccines against COVID-19. These communities in East and Northeast Calgary were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, yet faced vaccine access barriers. Diverse multi-stakeholder coalitions and community partnerships can improve vaccine outreach strategies, but how stakeholders perceive these models is unknown.

Methods: We conducted a formative evaluation of a low-barrier, community-engaged vaccine outreach clinic in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on June 5-6, 2021. We delivered an online post-clinic survey to clinic stakeholders, to assess whether the clinic achieved its collectively derived pre-specified goals (effective, efficient, patient-centered, and safe), to asses whether the clinic model was scalable, and to solicit improvement recommendations. Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Results: Overall, 166/195 (85%) stakeholders responded. The majority were from non-healthcare positions (59%), between 30 and 49 years of age (87/136; 64%), and self-identified as racialized individuals (96/136; 71%). Respondents felt the clinic was effective (99.2%), efficient (96.9%), patient-centered (92.3%), and safe (90.8%), and that the outreach model was scalable 94.6% (123/130). There were no differences across stakeholder categories. The open-ended survey responses supported the scale responses. Improvement suggestions describe increased time for clinic planning and promotion, more multilingual staff, and further efforts to reduce accessibility barriers, such as priority check-in for people with disabilities.

Conclusion: Diverse stakeholders almost universally felt that this community-engaged COVID-19 vaccine outreach clinic achieved its goals and was scalable. These findings support the value of community-engaged outreach to improve vaccine equity among other marginalized newcomer communities.

Keywords: CBPR; COVID-19; Community-engaged; Migrants; Vaccine equity; Vaccine hesitancy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of inclusion and exclusion of survey data.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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