Rates of immunization against pandemic and seasonal influenza in persons at high risk of severe influenza illness: a cross-sectional study among patients of the French Sentinelles general practitioners

Abstract

BackgroundThree main categories of persons are targeted by the French influenza vaccination strategy: all persons aged 65 years or over, those aged less than 65 years with certain underlying medical conditions and health care workers. The main objective of this study was to estimate rates of influenza immunization in these target groups attending a medical consultation for two consecutive influenza seasons: 2009–2010 (seasonal and pandemic vaccines) and 2010–2011 (seasonal vaccine).MethodsA standardized questionnaire was mailed to 1323 general practitioners (GPs) of the Sentinelles Network, collecting data on all patients seen on a randomly assigned day. For every patient, following information was collected: age, gender, BMI, presence of any medical condition that increases risk of severe influenza illness, and vaccination status for the three vaccines mentioned.ResultsTwo hundred and three GPs agreed to participate and included 4248 patients. Overall, in persons with high risk of severe influenza, the estimated vaccine coverages (VC) were 60%, (95% CI = 57%; 62%) for the seasonal vaccine in 2010–2011, 61% (59%; 63%) for the seasonal vaccine in 2009–2010 and 23% (21%; 25%), for the pandemic vaccine in 2009–2010. Among people aged 65 years and over (N=1259, 30%) VC was estimated for seasonal vaccines at 72% (70%; 75%) in 2010–2011 and 73% (71%; 76%) in 2009–2010, and 24% (22%; 26%) for the pandemic vaccine. The lowest seasonal VC were observed in younger persons (<65 years) with underlying medical conditions, in particular pregnant women (<10%) and overweight persons (<30%).ConclusionsOur study shows that influenza vaccination coverage among patients of the French Sentinelles general practitioners remains largely below the target of 75% defined by the 2004 French Public Health Law, and underscores the need for the implementation of public health interventions likely to increase vaccination uptake.

Couverture par le vaccin de la grippe saisonnière des médecins généralistes et de leurs patients. Enquête de pratique auprès de médecins généralistes français après la campagne de vaccination 2011–2012

“…Ces résultats étaient concordants avec ceux retrouvés dans la littérature : importance accordée au manque de fiabilité des données sur la vaccination, expression d'une vaccination vécue antérieurement comme désagréable, conviction d'être protégé contre la maladie du fait d'une exposition fréquente, faible perception du risque de la grippe, de sa sévérité ou de sa propre vulnérabilité [11,13,15] [24]. Ces résultats sont très éloignés d'une couverture par la VAG d'au moins 75 % dans tous les groupes cibles.…”

Influenza during pregnancy: Incidence, vaccination coverage and attitudes toward vaccination in the French web-based cohort G-GrippeNet

“…The overall incidence rate was 16% (95%Confidence Interval, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. The number of person-time was 1418 person-week leading to an overall incidence density rate of 1.8 per 100 person-week (95%CI, 1.1-2.6).…”

“…However, no such wide communication campaigns have been implemented for pregnant women. No data is available in this population except for the 2009/2010 season, where estimates of vaccine coverage below 10% were reported for seasonal influenza [13,14].…”

Field seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness

“…or above and persons below 65 y of age with chronic illness) were searched and included if oral consent was obtained. 1 To assess the VC in the population consulting a GP, we conducted a cross-sectional study 28 among GPs of the French Sentinelles Network. A day of participation was randomly assigned to each GP who agreed to participate (n = 262) and randomization was balanced to reflect the distribution of the usual days of consultation from Monday to Saturday, as declared by participants.…”