Incentivizing COVID-19 vaccination among racial/ethnic minority adults in the United States: $209 per dose could convince the hesitant

Health Economics Review

Research

Jeffrey E. Harris¹  Marta Wilson-Barthes²  Omar Galárraga³  Kevin Chen⁴ 

[1] Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 02142, Cambridge, MA, USA;Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, 02912, Providence, RI, USA;Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice, Brown University School of Public Health, 02912, Providence, RI, USA;Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 02903, Providence, RI, USA;

关键词: Financial incentives;    Vaccination;    COVID-19;    Contingent valuation;    Willingness-to-accept;    United States;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13561-023-00417-y

 received in 2022-06-03, accepted in 2023-01-04,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMore than two years into the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it remains unclear whether financial incentives can reduce vaccine hesitancy and improve uptake among key unvaccinated populations. This study estimated the willingness of racial/ethnic minority adults in the United States to accept financial incentives for COVID-19 vaccination and the minimum amount needed to vaccinate a sufficiently high percentage of this population.MethodsFrom August through September 2021, we conducted an online survey of 367 Black/African American and Hispanic patients, age ≥ 18 years, from 8 community health centers in Rhode Island. Contingent valuation questions assessed respondents’ willingness-to-accept (WTA) incentives for COVID-19 vaccination using random-starting-points and iterative incentive offers of $5 to $50 per dose. Ordered logistic regression models examined associations between respondent characteristics and WTA. Predictive probabilities were modeled using both within-survey range and out-of-survey range incentive offer amounts and compared against vaccination thresholds needed to reach herd immunity.ResultsLess than 30% of unvaccinated survey respondents were WTA an incentive of $50/dose for vaccination. Models using out-of-survey incentive offer amounts greater than $50 suggested that 85% of respondents would agree $140/dose (95% CI: $43-$236) could convince other people to accept vaccination, while $209/dose (95% CI: -$91-$509) would be needed for 85% of respondents to accept vaccination themselves.ConclusionsFindings from this analysis may inform the design of incentive schemes aiming to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in vaccine and booster uptake, which will continue to be important as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

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