Vaccination uptake (barriers/facilitators and interventions) in adults from underserved or hard-to-reach communities: rapid evidence summary

This rapid review was conducted as part of the Evidence Service’s collaboration with Heath and Care Research Wales

Next update: Update not planned

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Introduction

We looked for evidence for the barriers to, and facilitators of vaccination uptake in adults who are underserved or hard-to-reach, and for interventions and strategies to increase vaccination uptake in these groups. This report was requested by the Wales Vaccine Equity Group and the Public Health Wales Vaccine Preventable Disease Programme.

Main points

How up to date is this evidence?

This Rapid Evidence Summary was conducted in 2021 and included evidence from 2016 to 2021.

What we found

The things that stop people getting vaccinated are: 

• Lack of knowledge 
• Concerns about the safety of vaccines and possible side-effects 

• Mistrust of government and public health agencies 
• Language barriers 
• Believing they personally are at low risk 
• Difficulty of getting to where the vaccine is given 
• Vaccines not being an accepted part of their culture 

The things that make it more likely that people will get vaccinated are: 

• Being given information about the vaccine and being encouraged to get vaccinated by someone they trust 

• Communications in their language and in keeping with their culture 
• Translators at vaccination clinics 
• Community-based educational campaigns 
• Holding community-based clinics at places where people are likely to go so for example for the poor and homeless to have clinics at food banks and shelters  
• Vaccination centres in places which are easy to reach. 

What this means

The quality of evidence on what encourages people to get vaccinated is low. Therefore, the government and health authorities need to take a multi-pronged approach. They should work with community leaders as trusted people to provide information to their communities and encourage people to get vaccinated.  

Technical information

Rapid Evidence Summaries are designed to provide an interim evidence briefing to inform further work and provide early access to key findings.