Discussing Vaccination with Adult Patients: New Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey

Background:
Despite the recognition that health care providers' recommendations are strongly associated with vaccine receipt, relatively little is known about how and how often those recommendations are conveyed.

Objectives:
To improve understanding of communication between health care providers and patients about vaccines and vaccine-related issues.

Methods:
We estimated a series of logical regression models to examine the factors associated the occurrence and content of vaccine-related discussions using data from a nationally representative survey of the factors influencing influenza vaccine use during the 2007-8 influenza season (n=3,043).

Results:
Health benefits of vaccines, vaccine safety, and where to get vaccinated were the most commonly discussed topics with one quarter or more of adults discussing each. By contrast, only 16 percent of adults discussed vaccine cost with their providers and less than 5 percent discussed arrangements for being vaccinated outside of a health care provider's office. Despite being covered by influenza vaccine recommendations, individuals providing hands on care to hospital or nursing home patients or to small children at home were roughly one quarter to one-half as likely as non-caregivers to report all types of discussions.

Conclusions:
Our results highlight the importance of health care providers in educating their patients about vaccines and suggest that improved patient-provider communication is needed to increase access among those whose vaccine-indications are not readily apparent from clinical observations, and who do not see health care providers frequently.