Vaccine hesitancy among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders depends on the levels of trust these communities have in the sources of COVID-19 information.
That’s according to a new study by a team of researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, who last year surveyed more than 1,100 Hawaiʻi residents — a majority of whom were NHPI.
Individuals with a higher degree of trust in official sources of COVID information, such as government and news sources, were more likely to get vaccinated.
Individuals with a higher degree of trust in unofficial sources of information, such as social media or friends and family, were less likely to get vaccinated.
"Hopefully what we would like an outcome of this study to do is provide a roadmap for community health centers and state agencies such as the Department of Health to guide strategies that not only incorporate valid scientific information about new interventions like the COVID-19 vaccine, but at the same time also nurtures trust in the communities that can benefit from those types of interventions," said Alika Maunakea, an associate professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine.
"So for example, thanks in part to the findings in the study that suggested that strategies that nurture trust in science literacy might increase vaccine uptake, we then developed a community- and culturally-relevant education program with our school-based partnership that we are now evaluating," Maunakea said.
Maunakea says the findings of the study and that pilot curriculum could help improve communication strategies and health policies in the NHPI community.
