Influenza Vaccination During COVID-19 in a Rural Community: A Cross-sectional Survey

Vaccination behavior is an informative metric for assessing flu seasons and is especially important to understand for the 2020–2021 flu season, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to estimate flu vaccine behavior and assess vaccine perceptions during the pandemic season. Usi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of community health 2022-04, Vol.47 (2), p.226-231
Main Authors: Marcus, Rebecca E., Kolade, Victor O.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Community and Environmental Psychology
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - prevention & control
COVID-19 vaccines
Cross-Sectional Studies
Electronic health records
Electronic medical records
Ethics
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Humans
Immunization
Influenza
Influenza Vaccines - therapeutic use
Influenza, Human - epidemiology
Influenza, Human - prevention & control
Internal Medicine
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Online Surveys
Original Paper
Pandemics
Polls & surveys
Public health
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural Population
Seasons
Side effects
Surveys and Questionnaires
Vaccination
Vaccines
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Summary:Vaccination behavior is an informative metric for assessing flu seasons and is especially important to understand for the 2020–2021 flu season, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to estimate flu vaccine behavior and assess vaccine perceptions during the pandemic season. Using a cross-sectional descriptive study design, we conducted an online survey to assess vaccination behavior and perceptions of both COVID-19 and the flu. Patients were identified as recently seen by providers in an academic internal medicine practice (n = 827) and surveys were distributed as messages in the Epic electronic medical record system. We found that 88.3% of respondents (188/206) had received their flu vaccination for the season at the time of their survey response in December 2020–February 2021. Of those that had not yet received the flu vaccine, only 13.6% indicated they planned on getting one. 12.5% of respondents said they had changed their flu vaccine plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at differences from past season’s behavior, more individuals switched to getting the flu vaccine than those that switched to not getting the vaccine this season. The most frequently cited reasons for not receiving the flu vaccination were concerns about side effects and not being in a priority group. Changes in flu vaccination behavior from previous seasons represent a net positive in the direction of vaccine acceptance. Barriers to vaccination were identified and results from this study provide more information on vaccine perceptions, beliefs, and behavior, which can benefit future vaccination programs.
ISSN:0094-5145
1573-3610
DOI:10.1007/s10900-021-01036-6