NCU Study: Religious people more favourable to COVID-19 vaccination

A study by the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) has found that more religious people are in favour of receiving COVID-19 vaccines compared to non-religious Jamaicans.

The study, which looked at COVID-19 vaccination status among religious and non-religious Jamaicans, found that nearly 75 per cent of unvaccinated persons were from the non-religious population.

Nearly 50 per cent of unvaccinated people identified as religious.

Researchers found that half of the 1,111 people sampled indicated that their religion supported the COVID-19 vaccination.

Only a little over 11 per cent of the respondents said their religion objected, while 38.3 per cent were uncertain.

Among the religious community, more than half were vaccine hesitant, tending towards the younger age groups: 
18-26 years - 54 per cent
27-37 years - 51.2 per cent

Almost a third of elderly religious respondents were anti-vaccination.

Vaccine hesitancy
Christians - 46 per cent
Jews - 100 per cent
Hindi - 88 per cent
Islamics - 86 per cent
Rastafarians - 86 per cent

The NCU study suggests that religious Christians are the most likely to be vaccinated among the Jamaican population with females at a higher rate.

Lead researcher Paul Bourne suggested that the Health Authorities factor this information in their vaccination strategy.

“An opportunity exists for the Jamaican government to continue building trust among the population as vaccination initiatives continue across the island,” said Bourne.

Despite the comparably favourable attitude among the religious community towards vaccination there is still a high level of vaccine hesitancy among the Jamaican population with some 52 per cent of respondents unvaccinated. 

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