Publication Database

Social geography of COVID-19 vaccinations and inequalities in access to medical services in Poland (2023)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Jarynowski, Andrzej (WE 16)

Wójta-Kempa, Monika

Quelle

Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica

Bandzählung: 24

Heftzählung: 1

Seiten: 11 – 34

ISSN: 2084-2937

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/maes/article/view/10456

Kontakt

Institut für Veterinär-Epidemiologie und Biometrie

Königsweg 67
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 56034
epi@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

There is a need for a spatial analysis of COVID-19 vaccinations in Poland in order to assess the solutions taken to combat this epidemiological threat. Differences in vaccination rates highlight problems of inequality in access to health care. The analysis presented here aims to show inequalities in estimated vaccination rates and their predictors. The disparities were analysed at the NUTS-4 district level. The study uses spatial exploratory and statistical techniques in applying a model of the determinants of vaccination rates at the district level. The main dependent variable is the percentage level of full-scheme vaccination in a given district, and the independent variables were social, political, demographic, economic and epidemiological predictors. The results suggest a strong influence of systemic (organisational) barriers on vaccination rates. The proposed model using only a few key socio-epidemiological variables explains >75% of the variation in vaccination rates between districts (in particular, political preferences – specifically the choice of the party currently in power – explains as much as 30%). As a result of the analyses conducted, districts at risk of exclusion were selected, i.e., mainly rural and small-town districts of the eastern areas of Poland and districts potentially at risk, dispersed in clusters throughout Poland. Given that, peripheral regions with high support for the ruling party, fare less well in the vaccination campaign, the selected municipalities and districts should be strengthened in terms of personnel, information and medicine, with the aim of levelling out inequalities in access to health.