Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among Vietnamese, Asian, and non-Hispanic white Americans.
BACKGROUND
Vaccination data for Asian Americans are comparable to those for whites, possibly because they are reported in aggregate rather than for subgroups. We compared influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates among eligible Asian Americans and white Americans, and for Vietnamese Americans as a subgroup, and assessed factors associated with these vaccinations.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study of data collected from three ethnic groups over 4 years by telephone survey. Data were weighted for selection probability and population estimates and analyzed by multivariate logistic regression.


RESULTS
Vietnamese Americans had a higher rate of influenza vaccination (61%) than Asian Americans (45%) and white Americans (52%), and lower rate of pneumococcal vaccination (41%) than Asian Americans (56%), both lower than white Americans (67%).


CONCLUSIONS
When analyzed as a subgroup, Vietnamese Americans had a higher influenza vaccination rate, but a lower pneumococcal vaccination rate, compared to Asian Americans and white Americans, which may indicate that health behaviors and outcomes can differ widely among Asian subgroups. Analyses of preventive care measures in Asian Americans should focus on subgroups to ensure accuracy and quality of assessments.
Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California-San Francisco, 1701 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA. ndaniels@medicine.ucsf.edu
Nicholas A
NA
Daniels
Ginny
G
Gildengorin
Tung T
TT
Nguyen
Youlian
Y
Liao
Thien-Nhien
TN
Luong
Stephen J
SJ
McPhee
D000069:Acculturation; D000368:Aged; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002140:California; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines; D013689:Telephone; D014481:United States; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines