Trusted Sources of Information and COVID-19 Vaccination Among Black Adults in Chicago.

Abstract

Purpose: Examine trust in sources of COVID-19 information and vaccination status.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Chicago, Illinois.

Subjects: Convenience sample of 538 Black adults surveyed between September 2021 and March 2022.

Measures: Trust in sources of COVID-19 information, COVID-19 vaccination.

Analysis: Using latent class analysis, we identified classes of trust in sources of COVID-19 information. We considered predictors of class membership using multinomial logistic regression and examined unadjusted and adjusted associations between trust class membership and COVID-19 vaccination while accounting for uncertainty in class assignment.

Results: Our analytic sample (n = 522) was predominantly aged 18-34 (52%) and female (71%). Results suggested a four-class solution: (1) low trust, (2) high trust in all sources, (3) high trust in doctor and government, and (4) high trust in doctor, faith leader, and family. Unadjusted odds of vaccination were greater in the high trust in all sources (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2-3.2), high trust in doctor and government (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.4-5.3), and high trust in doctor, faith leader, and family classes (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.2, 3.9) than the low trust class. However, these associations were not significant after adjustment for sociodemographic and health status factors.

Conclusion: Although COVID-19 vaccination varied across trust classes, our adjusted findings do not suggest a direct association between trust and vaccination, reflecting complexities in the vaccine decision-making process.