Perspectives of Vietnamese Americans Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance, Trusted Sources of Information, and Pandemic-related Challenges

Background Due to limited research on Asian Americans and COVID-19, we investigated the perspectives of Vietnamese Americans regarding COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, trusted sources of information, and pandemic-related challenges. Methods Vietnamese American adult residents in Texas were recruited between September 2021 through March 2022 to complete the NIH CEAL Common Survey 2 electronically in English or Vietnamese, which contains 23 questions about social determinants of health, information, trust, risk perception, testing and disease control, COVID-19 vaccination, and demographics. We analyzed data using bivariate logistic or linear regression models. Results Of the 224 completed responses, 181 participants were vaccinated (80.8%), 20 (8.9%) were partially (one of two-dose courses) vaccinated, and nine (4%) were unvaccinated. Of the unvaccinated individuals, 44.4% reported that getting vaccinated in the next 3 months was "not likely at all," and the top barriers included safety concerns (77.8%), side effects (66.7%), and vaccine efficacy (44.4%). Vietnamese-language responders had significantly higher odds of experiencing non-medical challenges in obtaining food (OR = 2.08, p = 0.020) and transportation (OR = 2.56, p = 0.008) than English-language responders. Older age was significantly associated with reporting non-medical challenges in obtaining food (beta = 8.39, p < 0.001), water (beta = 9.58, p < 0.05), medications (beta = 6.43, p < 0.05), and transportation (beta = 5.69, p < 0.05). Conclusion Our findings describe barriers to vaccine acceptance and reveal variance in the prevalence of non-medical challenges among Vietnamese-language participants. It also showed within-group variation in COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and trusted sources of information among Vietnamese Americans. Research with disaggregated data can guide strategies to address non-medical health disparities in diverse communities.