Incentivizing COVID-19 vaccination among racial/ethnic minority adults in the United States: $209 per dose could convince the hesitant
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13561_2023_Article_417.pdf
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1.29 MB
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3e73b960e1867433f1c98a5aee7e39d7
Author(s)
Chen, Kevin
Wilson-Barthes, Marta
Harris, Jeffrey E.
Galárraga, Omar
Date Issued
January 11, 2023
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Citation
Health Economics Review. 2023 Jan 11;13(1):4
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Abstract
Background
More 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.
Methods
From 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.
Results
Less 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.
Conclusions
Findings 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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13561-023-00417-y
