Gender, Age and COVID-19 Vaccination Status in African American Adult Faith-Based Congregants in the Southeastern United States.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed significant differences in COVID-19 vaccination rates, with African Americans reporting lower rates compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The purpose of these analyses was to assess whether COVID-19 vaccination status differed according to age in a sample of 1,240 African American adult congregants of faith-based organizations ages 18 years or older, and to examine whether this association was moderated by gender.

Design: We developed and administered a 75-item cross-sectional survey, the Triad Pastor's Network COVID-19 and COVID-19 Vaccination survey, to assess experiences and perceptions regarding the COVID-19 virus and vaccines. We assessed the association between age and having received > 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine using unadjusted and multivariable binary logistic regression models, and the interaction of age and gender with COVID-19 vaccination status in a multivariable model.

Results: Approximately 86% of participants reported having received ≥ 1 dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The mean age (standard deviation) of the sample was 51.33 (16.62) years, and 70.9% of the sample was comprised of women. The age by gender interaction term in the multivariable model was significant (p = 0.005), prompting additional analyses stratified by gender. In women, increased age was significantly associated with higher odds of COVID-19 vaccination (odds ratio = 1.09; 95% Confidence Interval 1.06, 1.11; p < 0.001). In men, the association was not significant (p = 0.44).

Conclusions: Older age was positively associated with COVID-19 vaccination in African American women, but not African American men, which may inform strategies to increase vaccination rates.