{"id":3800,"date":"2017-06-28T09:15:16","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T13:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nchstats.com\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2017-06-28T09:15:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T13:15:16","slug":"vaccination-coverage-among-adults-aged-65-and-over-united-states-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/2017\/06\/28\/3800\/","title":{"rendered":"Vaccination Coverage Among Adults Aged 65 and Over: United States, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Questions for Tina Norris, Ph.D., Health Statistician and Lead Author of \u201cVaccination Coverage Among Adults Aged 65 and Over: United States, 2015<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> \u00a0Why did you conduct this study?<\/p>\n

TN<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0 We produced this report because vaccination is an important preventive health measure. Older adults have greater susceptibility to\u2014and complications from\u2014disease, and so they stand to benefit greatly from vaccinations as a preventive health measure. This study explores how the percentage of adults aged 65 and over, who received these recommended vaccinations, varied by sex, age group, race\/ethnicity, and poverty status.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> What finding in your new study most surprised you and why?<\/p>\n

TN<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0 While not unexpected, it was quite striking to see the overall variation in rates by vaccination type. We observed quite a range in the rates of vaccine coverage for influenza, pneumococcal disease, tetanus, and shingles. For example, more than two-thirds of adults aged 65 and over had an influenza vaccine in the past 12 months, while one-third had ever had a shingles vaccine.<\/p>\n

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Q: \u00a0<\/strong>Your report indicates you\u2019ve examined receipt of vaccinations among community-dwelling adults aged 65 and over. What do you mean by \u201ccommunity-dwelling adults?\u201d<\/p>\n

TN<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0 By community-dwelling, we mean those individuals who are not living in any type of institutional setting (ex. nursing homes, hospitals, etc.).<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> \u00a0What differences did you see among race and ethnic groups, and between the sexes?<\/p>\n

TN<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0 We did see a number of significant differences in vaccination coverage among race groups and between the sexes. In terms of race, Non-Hispanic white adults were more likely than Hispanic and non-Hispanic black adults to have had an influenza vaccine in the past 12 months. Non-Hispanic white adults were more likely than Hispanic, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic Asian adults to have had a tetanus vaccine in the past 10 years or to ever have had a vaccination for pneumococcal disease or shingles.<\/p>\n

Vaccination also varied by sex. Among adults aged 65 and over, men were more likely than women to have had a tetanus vaccine in the past 10 years. However, men were less likely than women to have had a shingles vaccine at some point in the past.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong>\u00a0 What would you say is the take-home message of this report?<\/p>\n

TN<\/em><\/strong>: <\/strong>\u00a0I think the take-home message of this report is that many adults aged 65 and over are not receiving recommended vaccinations. For example, two-thirds of adults never had a shingles vaccine, and nearly one-half did not have a tetanus vaccine in the past 10 years. We also see gaps in coverage for all four vaccinations\u2014influenza, pneumococcal, tetanus, and shingles\u2014by sex, age group, race and ethnicity, and poverty status.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> \u00a0Did you look at any titer-level testing for adults prior to vaccination receipt as a factor in vaccination coverage?<\/p>\n

TN<\/em><\/strong>:<\/strong>\u00a0 While titer-level testing is an interesting component in the strength of a body\u2019s immune response to disease, titer-level testing was out-of-scope for this project.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> \u00a0Did your survey look at the different Medicare types of insurance as a factor in vaccination coverage for the population you studied?<\/p>\n

TN<\/em>:<\/strong>\u00a0 No, insurance coverage was not included due to the cross-sectional nature of the survey and the long recall period for some of the vaccinations.\u00a0 However, direct costs\u2014and when the cost is incurred for vaccinations\u2014have been shown to vary according to insurance coverage, and have been linked to financial burden for older adults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Questions for Tina Norris, Ph.D., Health Statistician and Lead Author of \u201cVaccination Coverage Among Adults Aged 65 and Over: United States, 2015\u201d Q: \u00a0Why did you conduct this study? TN:\u00a0 We produced this report because vaccination is an important preventive health measure. Older adults have greater susceptibility to\u2014and complications from\u2014disease, and so they stand to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14337,53746],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}