If one of your new year’s resolutions is to increase influenza and COVID-19 vaccination among residents and staff members in 2024, results of a new research study published in JAMA Network Open provides some tips:
- In discussions, lead off by talking about the more popular flu vaccine.
- Be consistent in your messaging about the safety and effectiveness of both vaccines.
- Address people’s vaccine-specific beliefs, such as the limits of protection from prior COVID infections.
The research, which included a July survey of more than 2,000 adults, including 659 of whom were aged 50 or more years, 71% of the older adults said it was “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that they would get the flu vaccine, and 64% said it was very or somewhat likely that they would get the updated COVID vaccine. Forty-nine and 50% of the older adults, respectively said they thought that the flu and COVID vaccines were “very effective,” and 65% and 51%, respectively, thought that they were “very safe.”
The survey results also reveal the most common reasons that some respondents said they are hesitant about vaccination, which can help you with your talking points.
Among those 50 and older who said they were “not very likely” to get the flu vaccine, the top three reasons were that they would prefer to get natural immunity from becoming ill (35%), that they don’t trust the government agencies that promote vaccination (33%) and that they feel as if people are expected to get too many vaccines in general (31%).
Among those 50 and older who said they were “not very likely” to get the COVID vaccine, the top three reasons were that they want to see more research done on the vaccine (62%), that they are worried about the vaccine’s safety (59%) and that they don’t trust the government agencies that promote vaccination (55%).
(You can read about the other concerns of respondents, including those aged 18 to 64, here.)
Other recent research also provides motivation for staying current with vaccines:
- For instance, an analysis of more than 10 million cases of COVID-19 in adults between May 2020 and February 2022, published in December in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, found that among adults aged more than 50, the case fatality risk was 10 times higher in the unvaccinated compared with those who had been vaccinated within six months before testing positive for COVID-19.
- Research published in December in Lancet Infectious Diseases indicates that people hospitalized with seasonal flu also can end up with “long flu,” long-term, negative health effects, especially involving their lungs and airways.
See the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website for more information and resources about COVID and flu vaccination for long-term care residents or workers — long-term care workers have relatively low vaccination rates compared with other healthcare personnel.
Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here.
