Barriers and facilitators to influenza vaccination among high-risk groups aged less than 65 years - views from general practitioners and practice nurses.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the views of general practitioners and practice nurses about barriers to influenza vaccination among under 65 high-risk patients and strategies to overcome those barriers.


METHODS
Focus group discussions with general practitioners and practice nurses.


RESULTS
Barriers identified included: lack of awareness among patients about influenza vaccination; GP workload; poor GP motivation; lack of practice nurses; lack of patient recall systems; cost of vaccine; and lack of media campaign. Strategies proposed included: public education campaigns; free supply of vaccine; dissemination of evidence to motivate GPs; incentives to establish recall systems; and greater involvement of practice nurses in the process.


CONCLUSIONS
Influenza vaccination has not been well accepted by people aged less than 65 years. Implementation of proposed strategies has the potential to improve the vaccination coverage.


CONCLUSIONS
An improvement in influenza vaccination coverage among people less than 65 years who are in high-risk groups has the potential to reduce hospitalisation and health care costs.
Zwar
Nicholas
N
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia. n.zwar@unsw.edu.au
Hasan
Iqbal
I
Harris
Mark
M
Traynor
Vanessa
V
D000367:Age Factors; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D010821:Physicians, Family; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012307:Risk Factors; D040241:Social Marketing
D007252:Influenza Vaccines