Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC), Department of Veterans Affairs, North Hills, California, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2013 Nov 20;13:1082. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-1082.
Veterans of the U.S. armed forces tend to be older and have more chronic health problems than the general adult population, which may place them at greater risk of complications from influenza. Despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, seasonal influenza vaccination rates for the general adult population remain well below the national goal of 80%. Achieving this goal would be facilitated by a clearer understanding of which factors influence vaccination.
Using the 2010 U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), this study estimates models of two types of vaccinations (H1N1 and seasonal flu), assesses if the correlates differ for these vaccinations, and analyses the distribution of the correlates by veteran status.
Veterans, women, non-Hispanic whites, non-smokers, those at high risk, educated, with health insurance, and who use clinics as a usual source of care were more likely to receive both types of vaccinations. Those who were older, married, and with higher income were more likely to get vaccinated for seasonal flu, but not for H1N1. Age and number of children living in the household were found to have different effects for H1N1 compared to seasonal flu.
Veterans are more likely to get vaccinated for seasonal influenza and H1N1 compared to the general population. This might be due to Veterans having better access to care or Veterans participating in better health care practices. Future studies should examine potential differences in flu vaccination use among Veterans using Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system vs. non-VA users.
与普通成年人群体相比，美国武装部队的退伍军人往往年龄更大，患有更多的慢性健康问题，这可能使他们面临更大的流感并发症风险。尽管疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）提出了建议，但普通成年人群体的季节性流感疫苗接种率仍远低于全国 80%的目标。如果能更清楚地了解哪些因素会影响疫苗接种，那么就能更轻松地实现这一目标。
本研究使用了 2010 年美国国家健康访谈调查（NHIS）的数据，估计了两种疫苗（H1N1 和季节性流感）的模型，评估了这些疫苗接种的相关性是否存在差异，并分析了相关性在退伍军人身份中的分布情况。
退伍军人、女性、非西班牙裔白人、不吸烟者、高风险人群、受教育程度较高、有医疗保险、经常去诊所就诊的人更有可能接种这两种类型的疫苗。年龄较大、已婚且收入较高的人更有可能接种季节性流感疫苗，但不会接种 H1N1 疫苗。研究发现，年龄和家中居住的儿童数量对 H1N1 的影响与对季节性流感的影响不同。
与普通人群相比，退伍军人更有可能接种季节性流感和 H1N1 疫苗。这可能是因为退伍军人更容易获得医疗服务，或者他们更注重健康保健。未来的研究应该进一步调查退伍军人使用退伍军人事务部（VA）医疗保健系统与非 VA 用户之间在流感疫苗接种使用方面的潜在差异。
