Influenza Vaccine Coverage and Reasons for Non-vaccination in a Sample of People Above 65 Years of Age, in Sweden, 1998-2000

Influenza vaccination for the elderly has been shown to be effective. The Swedish national recommendations are that people over 65 y, and especially those with chronic cardiac and/or pulmonary disease, should be immunized annually. However, implementation of such programmes has often been far from successful. The aims of this study were to estimate vaccine coverage and especially reasons for not being vaccinated in a group of elderly people who were all clearly included in the national recommendations. The study investigated people over the age of 65 y who lived in special apartments, 'service homes', connected to the community care for the elderly in the municipality of Linköping, Sweden. The data were collected from the middle of May to the middle of July during 3 years, 1998, 1999 and 2000. Data were gathered by interviewing a sample of 210 tenants each year. All interviews were conducted using a standard questionnaire. The vaccination coverage for influenza in this population was found to be as low as around 30%. The main reason reported for non-vaccination was a lack of knowledge of the recommendations. The results clearly demonstrate that the single most important factor needed to attain high coverage is information, both to the people defined to be at risk and to health-care professionals.