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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1535780

COVID-19 Vaccination Attitudes and Acceptance Among People with Serious Mental Illness

Provisionally accepted
William Small William Small 1*Caroline Silva Caroline Silva 1Rachel Johnson Rachel Johnson 1Vincent Betti Vincent Betti 1Anh-Tho Antoinette Nguyen Anh-Tho Antoinette Nguyen 1Lauren Todd Lauren Todd 2David Jacobowitz David Jacobowitz 2J Steven Lamberti J Steven Lamberti 1
  • 1 University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, United States
  • 2 University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: This study examines attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination among a diverse cohort of adults with serious mental illness (SMI), participant characteristics that are associated with vaccine acceptance, and barriers to COVID-19 vaccination among this population.Methods: A 28-item questionnaire was administered to 185 adults with SMI receiving care at a university-based outpatient psychiatric clinic. Variables included demographics, health behaviors, and vaccination status. Chi-square tests were used for categorical demographic comparisons on binary COVID-19 vaccine status.Results: Female participants were more likely to have received COVID-19 vaccination (77.6%) than male (55.7%) participants. White (73.3%) and Hispanic/Latino (81.8%) participants were more likely to have received vaccination than Black/African American (54.9%) participants. Participants who reported having seen a primary care provider (PCP) within the past two years were more likely to be vaccinated (72.1%) than those who had not (41.7%). Participants who reported having received an influenza vaccine in the past two years were more likely to be vaccinated (80.2%) than those who had not (41.8%). Participants who had not been vaccinated were more likely to report greater concerns about all potential barriers to vaccination, including concerns about side effects, cost, health effects, and distrust of clinicians and governments.Conclusions: The overall vaccination rate of study participants with SMI was similar to that of the general population. Efforts to enhance engagement in primary care may help improve preventative health behaviors in people with SMI. Deleted: (2) 49 Deleted: (3) 50 Deleted: (4) 51 Deleted: The lives of those with serious mental illness (SMI) were 52 especially … 53 Deleted: (5) 54 Deleted: (6) 55 Deleted: (7, 8) 56 Deleted: (9) 57 Deleted: (10) Deleted: World Health Organization (WHO): WHO coronavirus 313 (COVID-19) dashboard. https://covid19.who.int 314 Deleted: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): 315 Provisional death counts for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-316 19).

    Keywords: keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, keyword4, keyword5. (Min.5-Max. 8) Covid-19, Vaccination, Community Health, Preventative health

    Received: 27 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Small, Silva, Johnson, Betti, Nguyen, Todd, Jacobowitz and Lamberti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: William Small, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.