Reasons for not having received influenza vaccination and its predictors in Canadians

Yue Chen,¹ Jun Wu,² Qi-long Yi,¹ Julie Laroche,³ Thomas Wong<sup>2

1</sup>Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, ²Professional Guidelines and Public Health Practice Division, Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, ³Immunization Assessment and Information, Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Background: Influenza vaccination is the most effective way to prevent influenza. However, only about one-third of Canadians receive an annual seasonal influenza vaccination.
Methods: The reasons for not having received influenza vaccination were examined among 131,061 Canadians ≥ 12 years of age who participated in a national survey in 2007–2008. Among them, 127,297 subjects responded to the questions concerning their flu shot history and were grouped into three categories: never (n = 51,767), 1+ year ago (n = 29,310), last year (n = 46,220). Subjects who reported not having had a flu shot during the past year were asked the reasons for not having it. The log binomial regression model was used to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the associations of various reasons for not having received influenza vaccination and their predictors.
Results: When weighted to the Canadian population, 44.0% had never previously received influenza vaccine and 24.5% had received the vaccine > 12 months ago. The most common reasons for not having received influenza vaccination in the past 12 months were “Respondent did not think it necessary” (71.3%) and “Have not gotten around to it” (17.6%). Log binomial regression analysis shows that females were less likely to report these two reasons compared to males with PRs of 0.98 (0.97, 0.99) and 0.84 (0.81, 0.87), respectively. Younger participants were more likely to report, “Have not gotten around to it.” For those who had an influenza vaccination previously, the primary reason for not having an influenza vaccination in the last year was “Have not gotten around to it.”
Conclusions: More than two-thirds of Canadians 12+ years of age did not receive an influenza vaccination in the past year, and “Respondent did not think it necessary” and “Have not gotten around to it” were the main reasons.

Keywords: Canada, flu shot, human, influenza, survey, vaccination