The following is a summary of “A Multivariate Probit Regression of the Uptake of Adolescent Vaccines Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Adolescents Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published in the January 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Ejezie, et al.
Teenagers are more likely to get their shots now than they were in the past. However, not much study has been done on how the COVID-19 outbreak affected this uptake among teens from racial or ethnic minorities. For a study, researchers sought to look at how likely it was that racial or ethnic minority teens aged 13 to 17 would get the human papillomavirus (HPV), tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap), and quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate (MenACWY) vaccines in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
They used a cross-sectional approach to look at data from the National Immunization Survey–Teen (2019–2021) and multivariate probit regression to describe how the uptake of these three teen vaccines varied (n = 38,128). Uptake of the HPV, Tdap, and MenACWY vaccines were used to measure the results. In 2020 (Coef = 0.09 [95% CI], 0.03–0.16] and 2021 (Coef = 0.07 [95% CI], 0.00–0.15]), more people were more likely to get the HPV vaccine than in 2019. In 2020 (Coef = 0.08 [95% CI, 0.02–0.15]), more people were likely to get the MenACWY vaccine than in 2019.
Among racial and ethnic communities, the chances of getting suggested vaccines were different. For example, non-Hispanic Black teens were more likely to get the HPV vaccine (Coef = 0.10 [95% CI, 0.01–0.19]) than the Tdap vaccine. All suggested vaccines were linked to where people lived in the U.S. Census and whether they had insurance. It’s possible that the COVID-19 outbreak did not stop people from getting these suggested medicines. Also, there were differences in who gets the suggested vaccines, even though more people got them during the pandemic. In the future, they should look into the changes and how the uptake of these three vaccines for teens varies by area.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X23004172