JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Studies has shown increase COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among migrant populations in certain settings than the general population. Hong Kong (HK) has a growing migrant population with diverse ethnic backgrounds. Apart from individual level factors little is known about the migrants’ preference related to COVID-19 vaccines.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate which COVID-19 vaccine-related attributes combined to individual factors may lead to vaccine acceptance or refusal among the migrant population in HK.

Methods:

An online discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted among all adults, including Chinese people, non-Chinese Asians (South, South-East and North-East Asians), and non-Asians (Europeans, Americans and Africans) migrants in HK from 26 February to 26 April 2021. The participants were recruited by quota sampling and sent a link to web-survey. The vaccination attributes included in eight choice sets in each of the four blocks were vaccine brand, safety and efficacy, vaccine uptake by people around, professionals’ recommendation, vaccination venue, and quarantine exemption for vaccinated travelers. Nested logistic model and latent-class logit (LCL) model were used for statistical analysis.

Results:

A total of 208 migrant participants were included with a response rate of 62.1%. Among migrants, participants with longer local residential years (27.7% for 10+ years, 20.6% for 7-9 years, 6.7% for 4-6 years, and 9.7% for below 3 years; P=.03), lower education level (28.3% vs 13.9%, P=.01) and lower income (25.2% vs 13.2%, P=.04) were more likely to refuse COVID-19 vaccination irrespective of vaccination attributes. BioNTech vaccine compared with Sinovac (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.75, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14-2.68), vaccine with 90% (AOR: 1.44, 95%CI: 1.09-1.91) and 70% efficacy(AOR: 1.21, 95%CI: 1.03-1.44) compared with 50%, vaccine with fewer serious adverse events 1/100,000 compared with 1/10,000 (AOR: 1.12, 95%CI: 1.00-1.24) and quarantine exemption for cross-border travelers(AOR: 1.14, 95%CI: 1.01-1.30) were the vaccine attributes that could increase the likelihood of vaccination among migrants.

Conclusions:

This study provided an insight on how different vaccine attributes, preferences, and individual-level characteristics of the migrant population could influence their COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. The study findings can be used in the formulation of COVID-19 vaccine promotion strategies for the migrant population in HK.