Patients with kidney failure on dialysis suffer from high rates of hospitalization and mortality associated with COVID-19. However, one in five patients receiving in-center hemodialysis are vaccine hesitant. In a Kidney International Reports study, Sri Lekha Tummalapalli, MD, MBA, assistant professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues examined how vaccine intent changes over time. They conducted a mobile health (mHealth)-based survey of New York City patients to study the longitudinal relationship between intent and uptake, considering factors such as employment status, marital status, neighborhood social vulnerability, and dialysis-related medical history. Vaccine uptake (87%) was higher than initial vaccine intent (79%), with 67% of patients who were initially vaccine hesitant going on to receive the vaccine. Younger age and social risk factors, including race/ethnicity and neighborhood social vulnerability, were associated with lower vaccine intent and uptake. The study highlights the dynamic phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy and the need for patient-oriented interventions.
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