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Haderlein TP, Steers WN, Dobalian A. Serious Mental Illness Diagnosis and COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in the Veterans Health Administration. Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.). 2022 Aug 1; 73(8):918-921.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between serious mental illness diagnoses and COVID-19 vaccination among Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients. METHODS: The sample (N = 4,890,693) comprised veterans ages = 18 years with VHA outpatient visits from March 1, 2018, through February 29, 2020. Veterans with serious mental illness were identified with diagnostic codes from electronic health records of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Receipt of a VHA COVID-19 vaccine from December 1, 2020, through June 1, 2021, was documented by using procedure codes. Treatment effects estimation with inverse-probability weighting was used to estimate the effects of serious mental illness on COVID-19 vaccine uptake. RESULTS: Patients with serious mental illness and patients without serious mental illness were equally likely to receive a vaccination (48% and 46%, respectively; average effect of serious mental illness = -0.4%, 95% confidence interval = -0.8% to 0.1%). CONCLUSIONS: VHA outreach activities have contributed to equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.