January 9, 2025
Since 2020, OCHIN has partnered with the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) collaborative project to ensure vaccine use and vaccine-related adverse events among OCHIN network patients are included in national vaccine safety surveillance and research. The diverse patient population within the OCHIN network enhances the representativeness and robustness of national studies and surveillance efforts on vaccine safety and health care utilization.
Enhancing vaccine safety through collaborative research
Vaccinations are crucial for preventing the spread of infectious diseases, protecting both individuals and communities through herd immunity—including those who cannot be vaccinated. Ensuring patient safety and confidence in today’s vaccines depends on rigorous surveillance and research into vaccine-related adverse events. Ongoing research supports the identification, evaluation, and mitigation of risks associated with vaccinations, enabling the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update its recommendations accordingly.
Today, OCHIN’s VSD team uses state-level immunization registries, Medicaid claims, and electronic health records from OCHIN’s network of community-based health care organizations to assess factors related to vaccine uptake, rates of adverse medical outcomes, and the completeness of OCHIN vaccine data. The project includes all OCHIN network patients of any age who have had a health care encounter since 2018.
Exploring demographic disparities in vaccination rates
In a recently published VSD study with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, OCHIN’s VSD team found the following:
- Demographic disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates: When adjusting for sociodemographic factors such as income and insurance, the odds of COVID-19 vaccination were generally higher among Asian and Hispanic patients and lower among non-Hispanic white patients. The only groups with lower odds than non-Hispanic white patients were Black and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years. Studies usually find lower rates among Black patients than white patients, so the team was surprised to find no significant difference between these groups, except among young pediatric patients. Some studies have found that racial disparities in vaccination rates disappear after accounting for sociodemographic factors.
- Predictors of vaccination uptake: Insurance status and prior flu vaccination were the strongest predictors of COVID-19 vaccination. Insurance may reflect financial access to care, while prior flu vaccination may indicate consistency in patients’ overall propensity to accept vaccines.
Building trust and reducing disparities
Enhancing the diversity and rigor of national vaccine safety research can strengthen the evidence base, providing patients with greater confidence that vaccine safety is being surveilled and studied in individuals like them and their families. Expanding research to include OCHIN’s patient populations enables OCHIN to contribute to building trust in vaccines across diverse communities.
OCHIN providers are likely to encounter patients with vaccine hesitancy and will be better equipped to address these concerns when the evidence supporting vaccine safety is robust and representative. As CDC guidelines for vaccine administration often guide clinical practice, OCHIN’s contributions to vaccine safety research will help ensure these guidelines are more comprehensive, evidence-based, and relevant to the populations OCHIN members serve.
Conducting vaccine safety research that includes OCHIN’s diverse patient populations can support the CDC in developing well-informed recommendations and addressing key upstream drivers of health disparities.
