Author ORCID Identifier
Iris Feinberg: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2379-2501
Jane Yoon Scott: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3039-2661
Lia Scott: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5379-333X
Kevin Maloney: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6205-9839
Richard Rothenberg: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4968-6248
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-22-2022
Abstract
The gap between how health information is communicated and what people understand and can use to make informed health decisions is called health literacy. This gap was exacerbated by the rapidly changing and excessive volume of information, misinformation, and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. People with lower health literacy may not have understood the importance of COVID-19 vaccination for themselves or for their communities. Our aim was to understand health literacy levels within Fulton County, Georgia, and their relationship to vaccine prevalence. Fulton county residents ages 18 and over (n = 425) completed an on-line Health Literacy Questionnaire. Individual, organizational, functional, interactive, and critical health literacy scales were created. Vaccination prevalence data were collected from the Georgia Vaccine Distribution Dashboard. All data were divided into one of three county areas. There were statistically significant variations in vaccine prevalence χ2(3) = 29.325, p < 0.001 among the three county areas. All levels of health literacy predicted overall county vaccination prevalence F (4,420) = 85.941, p < 0.001, There were significant differences in health literacy levels among two of the three county area pairs; the lowest resourced county area had the lowest vaccination prevalence and health literacy rates. This is the first example of relating direct health literacy measures across a major metropolitan US county with vaccine prevalence data.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10121989
Recommended Citation
Feinberg I, Scott JY, Holland DP, Lyn R, Scott LC, Maloney KM, Rothenberg R. The Relationship between Health Literacy and COVID-19 Vaccination Prevalence during a Rapidly Evolving Pandemic and Infodemic. Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Nov 23;10(12):1989. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10121989.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
Originally published in Feinberg I, Scott JY, Holland DP, Lyn R, Scott LC, Maloney KM, Rothenberg R. The Relationship between Health Literacy and COVID-19 Vaccination Prevalence during a Rapidly Evolving Pandemic and Infodemic. Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Nov 23;10(12):1989. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10121989.