Sep 19, 2024

Dr. Charles Olomofe, visiting assistant professor of Public Health, published a journal article and has had an abstract accepted for oral presentation at the American Public Health Association (APHA) conference in Minneapolis in October.

In the article, titled “Assessing the Predictors of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among People Living with HIV/AIDS: A Scoping Literature Review,” published in Medical Research Archives, Olomofe and four coauthors explored the literature on COVID-19 vaccine uptake and hesitancy among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) Extension.

They found that PLWHA who are Black, have a high viral load and a low CD4+ count were less likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Based on these findings, the authors recommended targeted intervention directed toward this population subset. The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.v12i8.5636.

At the APHA conference in October, Olomofe will give an oral presentation of his abstract titled “Assessing the predictors of COVID-19 vaccination uptake and hesitancy among people living with HIV/AIDS in Tennessee: A statewide analysis of data.” This research involved a secondary data analysis of the Tennessee Department of Health dataset on COVID-19 vaccine uptake among PLWHA.

Researchers found that increasing age, male-to-male sex risk exposure, and living in western Tennessee were associated with increased uptake of the vaccine. They concluded that social media-based education to improve COVID-19 vaccine behavior among young PLWHA is imperative, and recommended a peer-led educational intervention on COVID-19 vaccination targeting people who inject drugs (PWID).

The details of the scheduled abstract presentation can be found here: 
https://apha.confex.com/apha/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Person/2776909
https://apha.confex.com/apha/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/551950