Increasing COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage for Newcomer Communities: The Importance of Disaggregation by Language

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected refugee, immigrant, and migrant populations. Vaccines are essential for decreasing transmission and severity of COVID-19 infection. Understanding differences in vaccination coverage based on preferred language is crucial for focusing efforts to decrease COVID-19–related disparities. Four sites in the Minnesota Center of Excellence in Newcomer Health collaboratively evaluated completion of primary COVID-19 vaccination series on or before December 31, 2021, for patients who were 12 years or older on June 30, 2021, by preferred language. The non-English/non-Spanish speaking population included 46,714 patients who spoke 174 languages; COVID-19 vaccination coverage by language ranged from 26.2% to 88.0%. Stratifying vaccination coverage by specific language is a critical first step toward dismantling disparities and shaping interventions that best meet the needs of communities served.

Language Justice: Addressing Linguistic Disparities Begins with Language Data Collection

“… 11 , 12 In this edition of the Journal , Steiner et al identify language needs as a domain of inequity affecting COVID-19 vaccination coverage. 13 The authors emphasize the relative lack of language resources for the 26.5 million United States residents speaking primary languages other than English or Spanish. They found marked disparities in completion of the COVID-19 primary vaccination series by preferred language when comparing 25 of the most common languages represented in their dataset to the control group of Spanish and English speakers.…”

“…For example, Steiner et al opted to group Persian and Farsi together, while Mandarin and Cantonese were not combined. 13 Quadri et al opted to separate Hmong from Laotian, and Nepali from South Asian languages to emphasize languages spoken by refugee populations in the region represented in the dataset. 15 The development of recommended best practices or considerations for language analysis can support researchers in designing studies and utilizing research results to ameliorate linguistic disparities.…”