Factors Influencing Influenza Vaccination Among Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Population-Based Cross-sectional Study

Factors influencing acceptance of influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), often complicated by influenza or pneumococcus, is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Vaccinations against influenza and pneumococcus are, but vaccination coverage in Thailand has not been ascertained. This study aimed to determine the determinants of influenza and pneumococcal vaccination acceptance in COPD patients. A cross-sectional study of 210 COPD patients was conducted. Demographics, vaccinations, clinical outcomes (exacerbations and hospitalizations), and pulmonary functions were collected. A total of 134 COPD patients (91.0%male) were eligible for final analysis. Of these, 102 (76.1%) and 59 (44.0%) were vaccinated against influenza and pneumococcus, respectively. The influenza-vaccinated group had a higher rate of pneumococcal vaccination than the influenza-unvaccinated group (57.8% vs 0%, P < .001). Rates of influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations were higher in the pulmonologist group than in the non-pulmonologist group (71.6% vs 31.3%, P < .001 and 91.5% vs 38.7%, P < .001, respectively). By multivariable logistic regression analysis, influenza vaccination coverage was significantly higher among patients with bronchodilator response on pulmonary function testing. Pneumococcal vaccination coverage was significantly higher among patients who were seeing pulmonologists. Reasons for not getting influenza vaccination or pneumococcal vaccination were lack of recommendation, lack of knowledge, and misunderstanding, and in the case of pneumococcal vaccine, the expense. In conclusion, the influenza vaccination coverage in our COPD patients was considered high while the pneumococcal vaccination coverage was considered low. Physicians are advised to recommend and promote pneumococcal vaccination.

Drivers of and barriers to routine adult vaccination: A systematic literature review

We performed a systematic literature review in PubMed and Embase (2016-2021) to investigate the drivers of and barriers to routine vaccination in adults aged 50 and older globally. A thematic assessment identified three categories across 61 publications: sociodemographic, health-related, and attitudinal. The most common sociodemographic determinants (factors identified in studies; n = 47) associated with vaccination uptake were economic status, age, education, and household composition, which had mixed effects on vaccine uptake. For health-related determinants (n = 27), individuals with comorbidities and health care consumption were the most common factors, both increased vaccine uptake. The most common attitudinal factors (n = 42) were self-efficacy, provider or other's recommendations, and vaccine-preventable disease awareness; across studies, all attitude factors had a positive effect, unlike the sociodemographic and health status categories. Findings suggest that patient and provider awareness and education campaigns are effective ways to increase uptake of routine vaccinations in older adults.

Factors associated with influenza vaccine coverage among patients with diabetes: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016-2018

Background

Although the influenza vaccine has been proven to be effective, this common disease has high morbidity and mortality rates. Moreover, adults with diabetes are at a high risk of influenza-mediated morbidity and mortality.

Purpose of the study

With the increasing prevalence of diabetes, influenza is more lethal in diabetics; thus, we aimed to investigate the factors associated with influenza vaccination coverage in patients with diabetes.

Methods

Cross-sectional data were obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016–2018). We retrospectively analyzed whether sociodemographic, health-related, and medical factors are associated with influenza vaccination coverage in patients with diabetes. We performed a complex sample logistic regression analysis and estimated the odds ratios (ORs) by adjusting for statistically significant factors.

Results

The number of survey subjects was 18,553. The vaccine coverage rate among patients with diabetes was 60.6%. In the univariate analysis, sex, educational level, smoking, exercise, drinking, marital status, private health insurance, activity limit, economic activity, age, and EuroQol-5 Dimension scores, which were used to assess health-related quality of life, were associated with vaccination coverage. In the multivariate analysis, only age and economic activity were associated with vaccination coverage. The vaccination coverage rate was higher for people who did not undertake economic activities and who were older (OR 1.512 (1.087–2.105), OR 2.212 (1.822–2.686), respectively, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

National interventions involving public health centers are necessary to encourage influenza immunization for patients with diabetes, especially younger patients and those who work or undertake economic activities.

Machine learning models to identify low adherence to influenza vaccination among Korean adults with cardiovascular disease

Background

Annual influenza vaccination is an important public health measure to prevent influenza infections and is strongly recommended for cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients, especially in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The aim of this study is to develop a machine learning model to identify Korean adult CVD patients with low adherence to influenza vaccination

Methods

Adults with CVD (n = 815) from a nationally representative dataset of the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES V) were analyzed. Among these adults, 500 (61.4%) had answered "yes" to whether they had received seasonal influenza vaccinations in the past 12 months. The classification process was performed using the logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) machine learning techniques. Because the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Korea offers free influenza immunization for the elderly, separate models were developed for the < 65 and ≥ 65 age groups.

Results

The accuracy of machine learning models using 16 variables as predictors of low influenza vaccination adherence was compared; for the ≥ 65 age group, XGB (84.7%) and RF (84.7%) have the best accuracies, followed by LR (82.7%) and SVM (77.6%). For the < 65 age group, SVM has the best accuracy (68.4%), followed by RF (64.9%), LR (63.2%), and XGB (61.4%).

Conclusions

The machine leaning models show comparable performance in classifying adult CVD patients with low adherence to influenza vaccination.

Prevalence and associated factors of influenza vaccination coverage in Korean adults with cardiovascular disease

Infection with influenza virus increases morbidity and mortality in patients with risk factors, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to evaluate factors associated with influenza vaccination coverage in Korean CVD patients.We included 19,599 adults from the 2010 to 2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Influenza vaccination rates were compared in subjects with and without CVD. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with influenza vaccination in Korean adults with CVD before and after stratification for age (<65 and ≥65 years).Significantly higher vaccination rates were observed in individuals with CVD than in those without CVD (61.4% vs 31.0%, P < .001). However, young individuals (19-49 years) had decreased influenza vaccination rates, with no difference based on CVD status (20.3% vs 21.6%, P = .859). A lack of private insurance (odds ratio [OR], 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.23-0.98) and recent health screening (OR, 4.56; 95% CI, 1.90-10.92) were independent factors for influenza vaccination in CVD patients aged <65 years, whereas female sex (OR, 3.71; 95% CI, 1.24-11.07) and less education (OR, 4.59; 95% CI, 1.27-16.61) were independent factors in CVD patients aged ≥65 years.Improving influenza vaccination coverage for Korean adults with CVD is important, especially in young patients. For young patients with CVD, influenza vaccination status is independently associated with the presence of private insurance and recent health screening. This finding could help establish public health policies to promote influenza vaccination in this population.