Mittuniversitetet

Efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is very dependent on where you live. In Austria where vaccination rates are relatively low have since the beginning of the pandemic enforced various restrictions like lockdowns, quarantine, closing public spaces, requiring work or schooling to be undertaken remotely and dramatically limiting individuals contact and travel in efforts to prevent the spread of the virus. There may, however, exist a language barrier that prevents individuals in Austria from finding, understanding and following health information given by health professionals and may therefore risk having more health consequences. Objective: The study objective was to explore the knowledge and access to Covid related information and services among Austrian immigrants. Also, to assess whether language efficiency among immigrants affects vaccination. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted on 157 English speaking immigrants based in Austria. Data was collected using various kinds of questions where health literacy levels were based on participants' self-reported language level and awareness as knowing the location of the closest hospitals to them. We also investigated health information, source of information and perceived difficulties accessing, understanding and following information. All data was analysed in SPSS27. Results: confirmed that there is a statistically significant association between language efficiency and vaccination. It was also found that most immigrants have a negative perception regarding the difficulty of acquiring, understanding and following health information, resulting in many immigrants being vaccine hesitant. Conclusion: The difficulties found in this study can directly result from immigrants' low language level and the non-existing language alternative for important health information in Austria. The inability to understand information forces immigrants to rely on other sources of information, such as social media, where no editorial oversight exists and increases the chances of reading contradictory information that confuse individuals about health information and ongoing measurements against the virus.