Marvin Reis and Niels Michalski, in collaboration with scientists from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), have published an article in Scientific Reports. Using representative survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and regional data from the German Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation (GISD), they analyze disparities in vaccination behavior in Germany, highlighting the spatiotemporal dimension of vaccination diffusion.

Abstract

Combining the frameworks of fundamental causes theory and diffusion of innovation, scholars had anticipated a delayed COVID-19 vaccination uptake for people in lower socioeconomic position depending on the socioeconomic context. We qualify these propositions and analyze educational differences in COVID-19 vaccination status over the first ten months of Germany’s vaccination campaign in 2021. Data from the study “Corona Monitoring Nationwide” (RKI-SOEP-2), collected between November 2021 and February 2022, is linked with district-level data of the German Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation (GISD). We estimated the proportion of people with at least one vaccination dose stratified by educational groups and within different settings of regional socioeconomic deprivation at three time points. Logistic multilevel regression models were applied to adjust for multiple covariates and to test cross-level-interactions between educational levels and levels of area-level socioeconomic deprivation. Vaccination rates were lower among respondents with lower education. With increasing area-level socioeconomic deprivation, educational differences were larger due to particularly low vaccination rates in groups with low education levels. The analysis of vaccination timing reveals that educational gaps and gaps by area-level socioeconomic deprivation had appeared early in the vaccination campaign and did not close completely before the 4th wave of COVID-19 infections.

The article is freely accessible at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-75273-9.

Reis, M. & Michalski, N., et al. (2024). Reconsidering inequalities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Germany: a spatiotemporal analysis combining individual educational level and area-level socioeconomic deprivation. Scientific Reports 14(1): 23904.