Focus group analysis reveals barriers and opportunities for effective public health messaging in Hispanic communities, suggesting culturally relevant interventions are essential.
Given the disproportionate rates of COVID infections among Hispanics, this study explored factors influencing COVID vaccine uptake and inform public health messaging targeting this population. Hispanic participants (n = 80) were part of eight Spanish and English focus groups. Bilingual researchers transcribed interviews verbatim and conducted Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Five themes were constructed regarding factors influencing the community's uptake of the vaccines: (1) Vaccine seen as lifesaving; (2) Difficulty accessing the vaccine; (3) Vaccinated to protect others; (4) Misinformation led to fear and mistrust; (5) Others influenced perception of COVID and uptake of the vaccine. Two themes were constructed regarding factors influencing public health messaging: (1) Trusted sources of information are critical; and (2) Culturally relevant prevention and treatment messaging is needed through social media. Motivated to protect others, culturally relevant community-informed messaging via local trusted stakeholders is necessary for social workers to address health misinformation and reach Texas-Mexico border Hispanics.
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Alvarez‐Hernandez et al. (2025) studied this question.
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