JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Primary care providers are regarded as trustworthy sources of information about COVID-19 vaccines, but little is known about whether primary care practices provide information about COVID-19 vaccines on their practice websites.

Objective:

To identify the prevalence and correlates of COVID-19 vaccine information on family medicine practice website homepages in the United States.

Methods:

Between September 20 and October 8, 2021, we examined 964 U.S.-based family medicine practice websites and extracted data on the availability of COVID-19 vaccine information. We estimated prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine information on practice website homepages and used Poisson regression with robust error variances to estimate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios for correlates of COVID-19 vaccine information, including practice size, practice region, university affiliation, and presence of information about seasonal influenza vaccines.

Results:

Of 964 websites, 550 (57%) mentioned COVID-19 vaccines on their practice website homepage. As practice size increased, the likelihood of finding COVID-19 vaccine information on the homepage increased (28% among single-location practices compared to 78% among practices with 20 or more locations, p<0.01). Compared to clinics in the Northeast, clinics in the West and Mid-west had a similar prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine information on website homepages, but clinics in the South had a lower prevalence (adjusted prevalence ratio 0.8, 95% CI: 0.7 to 1.0, p=0.02).

Conclusions:

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, primary care practitioners who promote and provide vaccines should strongly consider utilizing their existing practice websites to share COVID-19 vaccine information. These existing platforms can serve as an extension of providers’ influence on established and prospective patients who search online for information about COVID-19 vaccines.