Missed Opportunities of Flu Vaccination in Italian Target Categories: Insights from the Online EPICOVID 19 Survey

  1. Andrea Giacomelli
  2. Massimo Galli
  3. Stefania Maggi
  4. Gabriele Pagani
  5. Raffaele Antonelli Incalzi
  6. Claudio Pedone
  7. Mauro Di Bari
  8. Marianna Noale
  9. Caterina Trevisan
  10. Fabrizio Bianchi
  11. Marcello Tavio
  12. Massimo Andreoni
  13. Claudio Mastroianni
  14. Aleksandra Sojic
  15. Federica Prinelli
  16. Fulvio Adorni

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Abstract

We aimed to assess the reported rate of flu vaccination in the 2019/2020 season for respondents to the Italian nationwide online EPICOVID 19 survey. A national convenience sample of volunteers aged 18 or older was assessed between 13 April and 2 June 2020. Flu vaccine rates were calculated for all classes of age. The association between the independent variables and the flu vaccine was assessed by applying a multivariable binary logistic regression model. Of the 198,822 respondents, 41,818 (21.0%) reported having received a flu vaccination shot during the last influenza season. In particular, 15,009 (53.4%) subjects aged 65 years or older received a flu vaccination shot. Being 65 years aged or older (Adjusted Odds Ratios (aOR) 3.06, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 2.92–3.20) and having a high education level (aOR 1.34. 95%CI 1.28–1.41) were independently associated to flu vaccination. Heart and lung diseases were the morbidities associated with the higher odds of being vaccinated (aOR 1.97 (95%CI 1.86–2.09) and aOR 1.92 (95%CI 1.84–2.01), respectively). Nursing home residents aged ≥ 65 years showed lower odds of being vaccinated (aOR 0.39 (95%CI 0.28–0.54)). Our data indicate the need for an urgent public heath effort to fill the gap of missed vaccination opportunities reported in the past flu seasons.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/vaccines8040669
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.30.20204560: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All the statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS version 25 (IBM Corp) and STATA version 15.0 (StataCorp LP).
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)
    STATA
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: We found the following clinical trial numbers in your paper:

    IdentifierStatusTitle
    NCT04471701RecruitingItalian Web-based Cross-sectional Survey on COVID-19

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.30.20204560v1 on medRxiv