COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the general population and under-resourced communities from high-income countries: realist review

Abstract

Objective: To compare vaccination willingness before rollout and 1 year post-rollout uptake among the general population and under-resourced communities in high-income countries.

Design: A realist review.

Data sources: Embase, PubMed, Dimensions ai and Google Scholar.

Setting: High-income countries.

Definitions: We defined vaccination willingness as the proportion of participants willing or intending to receive vaccines prior to availability. We defined vaccine uptake as the real proportion of the population with complete vaccination as reported by each country until November 2021.

Results: We included data from 62 studies and 18 high-income countries. For studies conducted among general populations, the proportion of vaccination willingness was 67% (95% CI 62% to 72%). In real-world settings, the overall proportion of vaccine uptake among those countries was 73% (95% CI 69% to 76%). 17 studies reported pre-rollout willingness for under-resourced communities. The summary proportion of vaccination willingness from studies reporting results among people from under-resourced communities was 52% (95% CI 0.46% to 0.57%). Real-world evidence about vaccine uptake after rollout among under-resourced communities was limited.

Conclusion: Our review emphasises the importance of realist reviews for assessing vaccine acceptance. Limited real-world evidence about vaccine uptake among under-resourced communities in high-income countries is a call to context-specific actions and reporting.

Keywords: COVID-19; Meta-Analysis; Vaccination.

Figure 1

Random-effects meta-analysis of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the general population. For each study, boxes and horizontal lines correspond to the respective point estimate and accompanying 95% CI. The size of each box is proportional to the weight of that study result in the fixed-effects model. The red diamond represents the 95% CI of the summary pooled estimate of the effect and is centred on pooled prevalence of vaccine acceptance. Heterogeneity estimate of I² accompanies the summary estimate. Studies are ordered by the proportion of acceptance.

Figure 2

Random-effects meta-analysis of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in special populations. For each study, boxes and horizontal lines correspond to the respective point estimate and accompanying 95% CI. The size of each box is proportional to the weight of that study result in the fixed-effects model. The red diamond represents the 95% CI of the summary pooled estimate of the effect and is centred on pooled prevalence of vaccine acceptance. Heterogeneity estimate of I² accompanies the summary estimate. Studies are ordered by the proportion of acceptance.