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Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis

BACKGROUND: In the UK, annual influenza vaccination is currently recommended for adults aged 16–64 years who are in a clinical at-risk group. Despite recommendations, rates of vaccine uptake in the UK have historically been low and below national and international targets. This study aims to analyse...

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Autores principales: Oakley, Simon, Bouchet, Julien, Costello, Paul, Parker, James
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8460844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34560879
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11736-2
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author Oakley, Simon
Bouchet, Julien
Costello, Paul
Parker, James
author_facet Oakley, Simon
Bouchet, Julien
Costello, Paul
Parker, James
author_sort Oakley, Simon
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In the UK, annual influenza vaccination is currently recommended for adults aged 16–64 years who are in a clinical at-risk group. Despite recommendations, rates of vaccine uptake in the UK have historically been low and below national and international targets. This study aims to analyse vaccine uptake among adults in clinical at-risk groups from the 2015–2016 influenza season to the present. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of influenza vaccine coverage in the UK was conducted using data extracted from publicly available sources. Clinically at-risk individuals (as defined by Public Health England), including pregnant women, aged 16–64 years, were included in this study. RESULTS: Influenza vaccination coverage rates across the UK in adults aged 16–64 years in a clinical at-risk group have been consistently low over the past 5 years, with only 48.0, 42.4, 44.1 and 52.4% of eligible patients in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receiving their annual influenza vaccination during the 2018–2019 influenza season. Influenza vaccine coverage was lowest in patients with morbid obesity and highest in patients with diabetes in 2018–2019. Coverage rates were below current national ambitions of ≥75% in all clinical risk groups. In these clinical at-risk groups, influenza vaccine coverage decreased between 2015 and 2019, and there was considerable regional variation. CONCLUSIONS: Uptake of the influenza vaccine by adults aged 16–64 years in a clinical at-risk group was substantially below the national ambitions. As a result, many individuals in the UK remain at high risk of developing severe influenza or complications. Given that people who are vulnerable to COVID-19 are also at increased risk of complications from influenza, during the 2020–2021 season, there is a heightened need for healthcare professionals across the UK to address suboptimal vaccine uptake, particularly in at-risk patients. Healthcare professionals and policymakers should consider measures targeted at increasing access to and awareness of the clinical benefits of the influenza vaccine.
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spelling pubmed-84608442021-09-24 Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis Oakley, Simon Bouchet, Julien Costello, Paul Parker, James BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: In the UK, annual influenza vaccination is currently recommended for adults aged 16–64 years who are in a clinical at-risk group. Despite recommendations, rates of vaccine uptake in the UK have historically been low and below national and international targets. This study aims to analyse vaccine uptake among adults in clinical at-risk groups from the 2015–2016 influenza season to the present. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of influenza vaccine coverage in the UK was conducted using data extracted from publicly available sources. Clinically at-risk individuals (as defined by Public Health England), including pregnant women, aged 16–64 years, were included in this study. RESULTS: Influenza vaccination coverage rates across the UK in adults aged 16–64 years in a clinical at-risk group have been consistently low over the past 5 years, with only 48.0, 42.4, 44.1 and 52.4% of eligible patients in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receiving their annual influenza vaccination during the 2018–2019 influenza season. Influenza vaccine coverage was lowest in patients with morbid obesity and highest in patients with diabetes in 2018–2019. Coverage rates were below current national ambitions of ≥75% in all clinical risk groups. In these clinical at-risk groups, influenza vaccine coverage decreased between 2015 and 2019, and there was considerable regional variation. CONCLUSIONS: Uptake of the influenza vaccine by adults aged 16–64 years in a clinical at-risk group was substantially below the national ambitions. As a result, many individuals in the UK remain at high risk of developing severe influenza or complications. Given that people who are vulnerable to COVID-19 are also at increased risk of complications from influenza, during the 2020–2021 season, there is a heightened need for healthcare professionals across the UK to address suboptimal vaccine uptake, particularly in at-risk patients. Healthcare professionals and policymakers should consider measures targeted at increasing access to and awareness of the clinical benefits of the influenza vaccine. BioMed Central 2021-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8460844/ /pubmed/34560879 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11736-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Oakley, Simon
Bouchet, Julien
Costello, Paul
Parker, James
Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis
title Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis
title_full Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis
title_fullStr Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis
title_full_unstemmed Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis
title_short Influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the UK: a retrospective database analysis
title_sort influenza vaccine uptake among at-risk adults (aged 16–64 years) in the uk: a retrospective database analysis
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8460844/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34560879
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11736-2
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