Elsevier

Vaccine

Volume 22, Issues 17–18, 2 June 2004, Pages 2163-2170
Vaccine

Does a population survey provide reliable influenza vaccine uptake rates among high-risk groups? A case-study of The Netherlands

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2003.11.049Get rights and content

Abstract

All European countries have recommendations for influenza vaccination among the elderly and chronically ill. However, only a few countries are able to provide data on influenza uptake among these groups. The aim of our study is to investigate whether a population survey is an effective method of obtaining vaccination uptake rates in the different risk groups and to find out what reasons people give as to why they have accepted or refused influenza vaccination and whether this varies among the risk groups. A mail questionnaire was sent out to households in The Netherlands, the response rate was 73%. This resulted in data for 4037 individuals on influenza and influenza vaccination during the 2001–2002 influenza season. The uptake rates and size of different risk groups from the panel survey were comparable with other national representative sources (from the National Information Network of GPs (LINH) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS)). The main reason cited for undergoing vaccination was the existence of a chronic condition. The main reasons for refraining from vaccination were having enough resistance to flu and ignorance about the recommendations. In The Netherlands, the GP is the main administrator of influenza vaccines. We believe that population surveys may be useful for revealing influenza vaccination uptake rates for the groups at risk. When combined with questions about reasons for undergoing vaccination, the results may provide useful policy information and can be used to direct vaccination campaigns at under-vaccinated risk groups or to target the information campaign more effectively.

Introduction

All European countries have recommendations for influenza vaccination among the elderly and chronically ill [1]. However, only a few countries are able to provide data on vaccination uptake among these groups. About half of the European countries are able to report uptake rates for the elderly, and a few countries are able to do so for the other groups at risk [2]. However, insight into vaccination uptake among different groups is essential for monitoring and evaluating national influenza vaccination campaigns, and for effectively directing information campaigns.

The aim of our study is to investigate the influenza uptake in the different risk groups. A second aim is to compare data from different sources, in this case panel data and data available from monitoring systems and to highlight the pro’s and con’s of both methods. A third aim is to find out what reasons people give as to why they have accepted or refused influenza vaccination and whether this varies among the risk groups. We also look at the distribution channels of influenza vaccination, which may provide insight into the different health care providers that are involved in administering the vaccine.

For this study, the following research questions have been formulated:

  • 1.

    To what extent do various risk groups in The Netherlands receive influenza vaccination?

  • 2.

    What reasons do people have for accepting or refraining from an influenza vaccination and does this vary among the risk groups?

  • 3.

    What distribution channels are used and what is their relative share in total influenza vaccination in The Netherlands?

Special attention will be given to the risk group due to disease that is under 65 years of age. There is no information available in the literature on vaccination uptake within this group.

Section snippets

Methods

Data on vaccination uptake are available from various sources in The Netherlands.

Firstly, a mail questionnaire was sent to two existing panels that answer questions on health issues on a regular basis for Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research (NIVEL). The questionnaire contained nine questions about influenza vaccination (see Appendix A), as well as questions about the effects of influenza on sick leave used in another study. The data collection took place in May 2002 and concerned

Representativeness

Before comparing the datasources, we will investigate the representativeness of the panel data. The panel is representative of the Dutch population from the point of view of gender. There is a slight over-representation of the elderly (65 years or older) (see Table 1).

The distribution over the several categories of risk groups and non-risk groups is comparable between the panel and LINH (see Table 2).

In the panel data, there appears to be an under-representation of persons with diabetes

Conclusion and discussion

In The Netherlands, there are several sources of information on influenza vaccination uptake. The most reliable is LINH, since these data are based on recording real vaccination uptake. However, survey data have similar results. The panel-based survey of vaccination uptake seems to provide quite a reliable means of identifying uptake rates, although this requires some qualification. For the individual high-risk groups, the size and uptake rates were comparable with other national data sources.

References (23)

  • D. Bedford et al.

    Influenza vaccination uptake in 1999 and older persons recall of vaccination

    Ir. Med. J.

    (2001)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text