Special report on COVID-19 vaccination trends among older adults in Singapore

• Main Authors: TAN, Micah, STRAUGHAN, Paulin T., LIM, Wensi, CHEONG, Grace
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Covid-19; vaccinations; older adults; senior citizens; Singapore; Asian Studies; Gerontology; Medicine and Health; Public Health
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/rosa_reports/5; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=rosa_reports
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This report examines trends in vaccination among older adults in Singapore to better understand why segments of older adults continue to resist vaccination against COVID-19. We find that individuals who were most likely to still be waiting to vaccinate or to not want to be vaccinated as of June 2021; are relatively older (aged 71-75), are of lower socioeconomic status (lower education levels and living in 1-3 room HDB flats), were the least likely to rely on Newspapers and Government Sources as sources of information for COVID-19 related news in November 2020, were least trusting of all sources of information, including Government as well as Local News sources, for COVID-19 information among all respondents in November 2020, have one or more chronic health conditions, are less socially integrated (more likely to live alone, have fewer household members on average, or have fewer ‘close contacts’ on average). Respondents were most likely to be waiting to vaccinate or to not want to vaccinate because they were sceptical of either the efficacy or the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. We hence suggest that initiatives to encourage older adults to vaccinate should be targeted at such individuals and should focus on assuring them of the safety and efficacy of vaccinations. Given the importance of social integration and social support for shaping health behaviour as our findings also suggest, as well as the fact that older adults who were less likely to be vaccinated were most trusting of family members for information on COVID-19, initiatives should include encouraging younger relatives of older adults to persuade their older family members to vaccinate, as they are more likely to be trusted by older family members for such advice. This could additionally involve encouraging younger individuals to accompany their older family members to get their vaccines as a form of support for older family members, which is likely to persuade more older adults to get vaccinated. Initiatives to encourage older adults who live alone or are less socially integrated to get vaccinated can include running programs with volunteers to accompany these older adults to get their vaccinations.