Community Engagement Strategies to Increase Vaccination Rates among African Americans: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The growing concerns and hesitations over vaccinations have contributed to the rising health disparity among African Americans. Vaccines are essential interventions used to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. With high levels of vaccine hesitancy, there has been a considerable decrease in vaccination rates, especially among African Americans. Different strategies are needed to address vaccine hesitancy at an individual and community level. Previous research has analyzed the effects of monetary incentives, mass media, and technology-based health literacy strategies on vaccination uptake. Despite these strategies, the health disparity among African Americans persists. Therefore, this systematic review will analyze community engagement strategies and their impact on increasing vaccination uptake among African Americans. Initially, 87 articles were retrieved from Pubmed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to screen the primary studies, and CASP and JADED quality scores were assessed. After screening the articles through the exclusion and inclusion criteria, five reviewed studies were included in the systematic review. The findings from five reviewed studies indicated that the leading causes of vaccine hesitancy within African American communities were medical mistrust and lack of accessibility. The solutions that were effective at combating medical mistrust and lack of accessibility were implementing community forums and community-academic partnerships, where faith-based or highly respected leaders within the community facilitated these events. In addition, implementing vaccine access points can help increase the accessibility of vaccines. All five studies lacked statistical analysis, indicating that additional research is needed to investigate the statistical impacts of the different community engagement strategies on vaccinations.