Author Date

2024-02-15

Degree Name

Department

Public Health

College

Life Sciences

Defense Date

2024-02-15

Publication Date

2024-03-05

First Faculty Advisor

DR. BRian Poole

First Faculty Reader

Dr. Chantel Sloan-Aagard

Honors Coordinator

Dr. Len Novilla

Keywords

Hispanic, Vaccination, Folk Medicine, Spanish

Abstract

Though vaccines decrease incidence of their associated diseases, vaccination rates among Hispanics are lower than their White non-Hispanic counterparts for almost all vaccines. In this study, we identify linguistic and cultural barriers to vaccination of Hispanic Immigrants (HI). An electronic survey was administered among HI parents living in the United States. Using structural equation modeling, we found that a lower language barrier increases the trust in patient-physician relationship (+0.487) and increases HPV knowledge (+0.450). Mistrust because the health care was not in Spanish led to negative vaccine attitudes (-0.104), while trust due to a lower language barrier led to positive vaccine attitudes (+0.306). Additionally, we found that high religious practice and positive religious beliefs towards vaccination correspond with positive vaccine attitudes (+0.20 and +0.587, respectively). Trust in institutions is strongly correlated with strong positive vaccine attitudes (+0.734). While trusting one’s folk practitioner more than a medical doctor leads to negative vaccine attitudes (-0.596), the use of home remedies is associated with positive vaccine attitudes (+0.486). The cultural competence of a medical practitioner, especially regarding folk medicine, is essential to lower cultural barriers HI patients face in vaccination. Physicians should consider increasing Spanish proficiency in order to improve the vaccine attitudes of their HI patients.