Community engagement to increase vaccine uptake: Quasi-experimental evidence from Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Mujahid Abdullah, Taimoor Ahmad, Twangar Kazmi, Faisal Sultan, Sabeen Afzal, Rana Muhammad Safdar and Adnan Ahmad Khan

PLOS ONE, 2022, vol. 17, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: Developing countries have been facing difficulties in reaching out to low-income and underserved communities for COVID-19 vaccination coverage. The rapidity of vaccine development caused a mistrust among certain subgroups of the population, and hence innovative approaches were taken to reach out to such populations. Using a sample of 1760 respondents in five low-income, informal localities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan, we evaluated a set of interventions involving community engagement by addressing demand and access barriers. We used multi-level mixed effects models to estimate average treatment effects across treatment areas. We found that our interventions increased COVID-19 vaccine willingness in two treatment areas that are furthest from city centers by 7.6% and 6.6% respectively, while vaccine uptake increased in one of the treatment areas by 17.1%, compared to the control area. Our results suggest that personalized information campaigns such as community mobilization help to increase COVID-19 vaccine willingness. Increasing uptake however, requires improving access to the vaccination services. Both information and access may be different for various communities and therefore a “one-size-fits-all” approach may need to be better localized. Such underserved and marginalized communities are better served if vaccination efforts are contextualized.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0274718

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274718

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