COVID-19 Attitudes and Vaccine Hesitancy among an Agricultural Community in Southwest Guatemala: A Cross-Sectional Survey

• Published in: Vaccines (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 6; p. 1059
• Main Authors: Rojop, Neudy, Calvimontes, Diva M., Barrios, Edgar, Lamb, Molly M., Paniagua-Avila, Alejandra, Monzon, Jose, Duca, Lindsey M., Iwamoto, Chelsea, Chard, Anna N., Gomez, Melissa, Arias, Kareen, Roell, Yannik, Bolanos, Guillermo Antonio, Zielinski-Gutierrez, Emily, Azziz-Baumgartner, Eduardo, Lopez, Maria Renee, Cordon-Rosales, Celia, Asturias, Edwin J., Olson, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.06.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: access; Agrarian society; agricultural worker; Analysis; Cohort analysis; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; Cross-sectional studies; Decision making; Disease transmission; Ethnicity; Family income; Farmworkers; Females; Food; Food supply; Guatemala; Health behavior; Health care rationing; hesitancy; Households; Immunization; Methods; Pandemics; Personal protective equipment; Population; Public health; Rural areas; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Surveys; Vaccines; Guatemala; United States > US; COVID-19; Guatemala; agricultural worker; hesitancy; SARS-CoV-2; access
• ISSN: 2076-393X; 2076-393X
• DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11061059

Despite offering free-of-charge COVID-19 vaccines starting July 2021, Guatemala has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Latin America. From 28 September 2021 to 11 April 2022, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of community members, adapting a CDC questionnaire to evaluate COVID-19 vaccine access and hesitancy. Of 233 participants ≥ 12 years, 127 (55%) received ≥1 dose of COVID-19 and 4 (2%) reported prior COVID-19 illness. Persons ≥ 12 years old who were unvaccinated (n = 106) were more likely to be female (73% vs. 41%, p < 0.001) and homemakers (69% vs. 24%, p < 0.01) compared with vaccinated participants (n = 127). Among those ≥18 years, the main reported motivation for vaccination among vaccinated participants was to protect the health of family/friends (101/117, 86%); on the other hand, 40 (55%) unvaccinated persons reported little/no confidence in public health institutions recommending COVID-19 vaccination. Community- and/or home-based vaccination programs, including vaccination of families through the workplace, may better reach female homemakers and reduce inequities and hesitancy.