West Midlands research study reveals attitudes to vaccines

A recent survey undertaken by researchers in the West Midlands, including medical professors from the University of Wolverhampton, has highlighted key issues with vaccine uptake which its authors hope will influence government policy on vaccine hesitancy.

Among the findings, the team found that the groups who were more cautious about accepting an approved vaccine were smokers, those with no known illness and the Black and Chinese communities while those most likely to accept one were aged over 70 and those of South Asian ethnicity.

On Tuesday 8 December, the UK became the first official country to roll out a national Covid-19 vaccine programme, and by the beginning of February, nine million people in the county had received their first dose.

‘The Uptake Study: Insights And Beliefs of the UK Population on Vaccines during the Covid-19 Pandemic’ was carried out by researchers from the University of Wolverhampton and University of Birmingham with the support of the Clinical Research Network West Midlands (CRN WM) and The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT).

The data provides an insight into the key drivers and barriers to vaccine uptake following 4,884 people responding to the invitation to the survey between 4 September 2020 and 9 October 2020.

 Key findings were: 

• 79 per cent were interested in taking approved vaccines
• Groups most likely to accept approved vaccines were participants aged over 70 years and those of South Asian ethnicity
• Males and females were both equally likely to take the approved vaccine
• Just over one in 10 respondents were unsure about taking a vaccine, but only seven out of 100 respondents would definitely not take a vaccine
• Smokers, those with no known illness and the Black and Chinese communities expressed more caution about accepting the vaccine
• Of those who would choose not to have the vaccine, around half had previously declined vaccines in the past

It’s believed to be the first study to identify smokers as being less likely to accept approved vaccines which could be an area of concern.

However, it gives reassurance that the high-risk groups identified by the UK government are more likely to take the vaccine.

Dr Sonika Sethi from RWT, Lead Author of the study said: “Our work clearly shows the need to design interventional and public health strategies to engage and encourage participation from groups not interested in taking the approved vaccine.

“We believe that primary care should be at the forefront of these educational strategies, as participants are more likely to be willing to be vaccinated if recommended by their healthcare provider.”

University of Wolverhampton Professor Matthew Brookes, Deputy Clinical Director of the CRN WM added: “This work has seen a largely positive response to accepting the approved Covid-19 vaccinations.

“If we assume that 70 to 80 per cent uptake is needed to ensure adequate immunity within the community then this work is reassuring but we will need to ensure that we support those groups within our communities who need more information to support their decision making around the future choices for vaccination.”

This study is currently only available in a pre-print version and awaits submission and formal peer-review.

The team also looked into the implications for the future of Covid-19 vaccination trial recruitment in UK and beyond by surveying which population groups are willing to take part in Covid-19 vaccine trials. To ensure accuracy of a trial’s results, it is crucial to recruit patient cohorts as representative as possible of the future target population. Missing these targets can lead to reduced validity of the study results, and can often slow down drug development leading to costly delays.