New statistics from Public Health Scotland lay bare the challenges in rolling out the vaccination programme amongst some communities
The report provides new data showing the levels of vaccination uptake by ethnicity and poverty levels. The report covers vaccinations from the start of the rollout to September 2021.
Poverty gap
Across the Scottish health boards, Grampian shows the lowest level of first dose uptake within its most-deprived communities, and the second largest gap between richest and poorest at 16.5%. Coming in a close second to Tayside with a 16.7% gap.
The measurement of poverty used in the report is the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) which ranks areas of Scotland based on a range of factors from health to education levels, income and access to services. Areas are assigned a rank and also banded within ten groups called deciles. Within the deciles all of the areas in group one are the ‘most-deprived’ areas and ten is ‘least-deprived’.
An NHS Grampian spokeswoman said: “Throughout the Covid-19 vaccination programme we have worked hard to make getting the jabs as easy as possible. In addition to our fixed vaccination centres, we have run numerous pop-up clinics at venues including churches, community centres, and outdoor events. Our centres in Aberdeen and Elgin are open seven days a week, while Aberdeenshire clinics operate five days a week.
“We recognise getting vaccinated is a personal choice and people may have questions or concerns they wish to discuss. Our vaccination teams are happy to have these conversations. Although the seasonal ‘flu and Covid-19 booster programme is getting underway, it is not too late to come forward for your first dose. We continue to have good supply of vaccine and our teams will be delighted to see you, whether you choose to drop-in or make an appointment.”
In comparison to Grampian, the Highland health board was the only area to have a reverse poverty gap, having vaccinated more people in the most-deprived areas than the least.
Across Scotland, the 40-49 age demographic showed the largest disparity from most to least deprived with a 10.3% gap.
What about ethnicity?
The report also shed some light on vaccination levels by ethnic group which showed that the white Polish community in Scotland had the lowest first dose uptake rate at less than 50%.
The rate amongst this community is low across all Scottish health boards but particularly in the larger boards such as Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire.
More from the DCT data team
- Covid vaccine in Scotland: Track the rollout progress with these charts
- Coronavirus in Scotland – track the spread with these charts
- Data: Aberdeen remains the area with highest proportion of EU-born residents