TUESDAY, Could 10, 2022 (HealthDay Information)
Adults with autism have excessive charges of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and photographs, a brand new examine reveals.
That is excellent news, as a result of autistic adults have a number of danger components for COVID-19 an infection and for extra extreme sickness in the event that they contract the illness, the researchers stated.
“Reaching this group successfully in public well being messaging about vaccination is essential,” stated examine co-author Kaitlin Koffer Miller, from Drexel College in Philadelphia.
To seek out out if public well being messages in regards to the significance of getting vaccinated have reached adults with autism, the authors despatched on-line surveys to 431 autistic adults in Pennsylvania who had participated in earlier analysis.
The responses have been collected between March and August 2021. They confirmed that about 78% of survey respondents stated that they had acquired or supposed to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and greater than 55% stated that that they had acquired a minimum of one dose.
As compared, 42% of the general grownup inhabitants in Pennsylvania had acquired a minimum of one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of the median response date for the survey (April 2, 2021), in response to the examine. The findings have been printed within the journal Vaccine.
Among adults with autism, vaccine accepters “have been extra more likely to report elevated loneliness throughout COVID-19, reside in additional populated counties and in counties gained by President Biden within the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” stated Koffer Miller. She’s director of coverage affect with the Drexel Autism Institute Coverage and Analytics Heart.
“Constructive relationships have been discovered between wanting to guard others from COVID-19, concern about getting COVID-19 and trusting the security of the vaccines,” Koffer Miller stated in a college information launch.
Concern about vaccine security was frequent amongst those that have been vaccine hesitant.
The findings may also help information efforts to extend vaccination charges amongst individuals with autism, in response to the researchers.
“By understanding causes for vaccine hesitancy — for instance, considerations about vaccine security — or vaccine acceptance, corresponding to emotions of elevated loneliness, amongst autistic grownup respondents may also help drive simpler public well being messaging and vaccine outreach to this inhabitants,” Koffer Miller stated.
The examine suggests ways in which public well being businesses can promote vaccination to individuals with autism, together with utilizing visible strategies corresponding to social tales, which clarify social conditions to assist autistic individuals study socially acceptable habits and responses.
Extra data
The Autism Society has extra on COVID-19.
SOURCE: Drexel College, information launch, Could 3, 2022
By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter
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