English 402
Pullman, Washington 99163
April 29, 2013
Deputy Director
CDC Procurement and Grants Office
2920 Brandywine Road
Mail Stop E-14
Atlanta, GA 30341
Dear Deputy Director,
The attached document you will find with this letter is my final report on the barriers to flu vaccinations. I have called it THE BARRIERS FOR PUBLIC NOT RECEIVING VACCINATIONS FOR INFLUENZA AND SIMILAR INFECTIOUS DISEASES. It represents both qualitative and quantitative data and analysis of my research that I performed with your funding.
As you know, vaccinations rates in the population are way below what they should be, with less than half the population vaccinated with the simple flu vaccine. Thousands …show more content…
Secondly, it would appear that there is a general lack of knowledge regarding the vaccine. The survey revealed that 38% of participants in their study claimed “Doctor hasn’t to me I need it”. Additionally, those who were aware of the vaccine but didn’t not receive it because of fear of getting the disease was 26%. (Johnson, 2008) In the physicians that were surveyed, many felt that patients didn’t come in enough for their well care checkups. Only 20% of the patients reported they had not seen providers for well-care visits and 29% had had a routine care visit. (Johnson, 2008) The providers almost all felt that their adult patients should be immunized, but feel that because of gaps in care, they were being missed.
In the study which was performed in Germany, only 8.8% were vaccinated. Of that Bohmer states “fear of side effects” was the most reason for not receiving the vaccine (2012). Participants in the survey felt that it was not necessary or safe. It was concluded that poor compliance with recommendations showed that campaign efforts were ineffective.
A study that was conducted regarding Pneumococcal and Influenza vaccines identified that there was a key influence on patient behavior and physician recommendation. According to Nowalk, “Of those who were not vaccinated, only half believed that their doctor’s think they …show more content…
Participants with children were then asked questions regarding their children and vaccines. The participants reported the following ages of children living at home: 1-3 years: 6, 3-6 years: 8, 6-10 years: 13, 11-15 years: 6, and 16-18 years: 2. When they were asked about whether their children had their flu vaccine, 15 (45.5%) reported yes, 15 (45.5%) reported no and 4 (9.5%) reported they didn’t know. Again the participants were asked why their children had not received their vaccines. The following were the results: cost (1), no insurance (1), potential side effects (2), don’t get sick (3), afraid of getting the flu from the shot (2), afraid of shots (2), and other (6). The other category was filled in answers: ineffective or they forgot to get them