Barriers to Access
Unique Barriers to Access for Hispanics
Vaccine hesitancy is not uniform within racial/ethnic minority populations; yet, given the disproportionate impact, understandable distrust, and widespread misinformation, the importance of understanding their unique challenges is clear. Studies conducted in Hispanic communities have demonstrated the impact of a variety of factors associated with vaccination willingness, uptake, implementation, and access.
Underserved populations are more likely to have underlying medical conditions and to experience overlapping risk factors than any other group. Social determinants like poverty, high-crime neighborhoods, food deserts, limited educational and career achievement, and high unemployment are some just examples of these factors. There is a dire need for government and locally-based strategies to safeguard the Hispanic community, particularly when it comes to accessibility and digestibility of information.
In order to overcome these barriers, campaigns like Vaccinate For All works to engage trusted messengers and community leaders, identify and disseminate culturally-competent messaging, directly address widespread concerns and misinformation, and connect with existing community infrastructure that also works for underserved and underrepresented communities like the Hispanic community.
The Workplace
One of the most at-risk groups during the COVID-19 pandemic have been essential workers. Constant exposure to people and low safety measures have particularly impacted the health of Latinos, of whom 70.5% work jobs classified in this category. Similarly, 79.3% of Hispanic noncitizens without legal status also work in essential industries.
With legal and socioeconomic barriers blocking access to health coverage for millions, Latinos remain least likely to work in jobs that offer health insurance in a system widely reliant upon employer-provided coverage. Overall, approximately 20% of Latinos are uninsured, leading to testing and treatment delays for COVID-19 as well as reports of critical shortages in professional interpreters and multilingual telehealth options.
This has led to a variety of issues, with Hispanic women specifically leading their jobs at a rate three times higher than non-Hispanic white women and four times higher than Black women during the pandemic.
Even so, factors like migratory status issues and worker exploitation have led to mass unemployment, more so than any other group resulting from the pandemic. This number peaked in April 2020, where approximately 18.9% Latinos had lost their jobs in the midst of the pandemic.
Health Literacy
Health literacy has been associated with major health care and health outcomes including hospital admissions, the use of preventive services, management of chronic conditions, mortality, and access to accurate informational materials.
In the United States, low health literacy is greatly determined by socioeconomic status, lack of consistent health insurance, and limited English proficiency, with the last being the most determining factor. Because most Hispanics struggle within one or all of these realms, it has become evident that disparities in health literacy parallel those in health outcomes. One example of this was a major study conducted that demonstrated how parents with limited health literacy and English proficiency were the most likely to make dosing errors when administering medication to their children than those without these barriers.
This is why it's so important for campaigns like Vaccinate For All to generate curated health literacy and culturally relevant informational content to raise awareness of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Providers can use visual communication and infographics to bridge and mitigate these gaps in their health literacy screening practices.
Targeted Disinformation
A 2021 study found that 37% of Latino respondents had been exposed to information targeted at delegitimizing the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Half of these cases were reported to be from Facebook, where one 30% of widespread disinformation in Spanish is identified as opposed to 70% in English.
This is particularly worrisome, given Latinos in the United States are 57% more likely than non-Hispanics to use social media as a source of health information. A national poll also found that even with over 50% of unvaccinated Latinos believing the vaccine was unsafe, that percentage rose to 67% among those who primarily spoke Spanish.
In order to overcome the impact of disinformation, Vaccinate For All works to gather facts, test messaging, monitor media and public opinion, and publish accurate and pertinent bilingual information for providers to share with patients. Our Champions help this mission by providing support as spokespersons that amplify our talking points, social media materials, and represent Vaccinate For All in the media to further disseminate this messaging.
Lack of Representation
Studies have found that past experiences with racial and ethnic discrimination is a major predictor of vaccine hesitancy in Hispanic communities. In fact, those who have experienced this form of discrimination are almost 30% more likely to be at a higher level of vaccine hesitancy than those who have not.
At the same time, Hispanic people are rarely included in clinical research, leading to results and health recommendations that many times don’t apply to the community. In fact, a majority of studies report on “Hispanic” or “Latino” as the characteristic of Hispanic research populations with no additional defining traits reported. Only a few note language, country of origin, and race as descriptors, reflecting a broader misunderstanding of the community as a whole.
This lack of detailed understanding of the community in turn leads to further barriers in access and practice for Hispanic people in the U.S. When providers are not able to access culturally-competent, bilingual resources, they are unable to effectively communicate with and assist their Hispanic patients as a result.