Survey shows low RSV vaccine uptake among older adults in the US
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Key takeaways:
- Among 440 older adults surveyed about RSV vaccination, only 26.4% received an RSV vaccine.
- 83.2% knew that RSV vaccines were available but only 22.3% had a health care worker recommend vaccination.
A recent survey showed that only about one-quarter of older adults have received respiratory syncytial virus vaccinations.
The 2023-2024 season is the first that these vaccines have been available and recommended by the CDC.
In June 2023, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices supported recommendations saying that people aged 60 years or older “may receive” one of the two RSV vaccines recently approved by the FDA — the first two RSV vaccines ever available — in consultation with their physician. Data shared at the time of the recommendations showed that a single-dose of GSK’s RSV vaccine had an efficacy of 94.1% during the first season and 84.6% during the second, while Pfizer’s vaccine was 88.9% and 78.6% effective. Following these recommendations, the current RSV season is the first that the vaccines were available for use in older adults in the U.S.
“Despite the increased risk of severe RSV disease among older adults and particularly those with certain underlying conditions (such as chronic lung and heart conditions), relatively few older adults have received an RSV vaccination,” Elizabeth La, PhD, director of U.S. Vaccines Health Economics and Outcomes Research at GSK, told Healio.
“We wanted to evaluate the potential public health impact of these RSV vaccinations and also assess the impact of increasing vaccination to better understand the additional RSV burden that could be avoided by increasing coverage,” La said.
According to a study presented at the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases’ Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research, La and colleagues administered a cross-sectional, web-based survey to adults recently vaccinated with an “adult vaccine” — not limited to the RSV vaccines — between Sept. 26, 2023, and Nov. 7, 2023.
Participants were excluded if they were health care workers or had received four or more vaccines at their most recent vaccination visit. The full survey targeted more than 900 adults with a roughly equal number of participants aged 18 to 49 years, 50 to 64 years, and 65 years and older. Those who were aged 60 years and older were asked additional questions related to their experiences with RSV vaccination.
In total, 938 adults completed the survey, including 440 adults aged 60 years and older. Of these participants, 85.7% reported that they had heard of RSV, 83.2% knew that RSV vaccines were available for older adults, but only 26.4% reported receiving an RSV vaccine.
Among the 324 respondents who were not yet vaccinated, 40.1% reported being unlikely or not knowing whether they would ask a health care worker about the RSV vaccine and 61.7% reported being unlikely or not knowing whether they would receive the RSV vaccine this season.
Primary reasons for not receiving an RSV vaccine included lack of knowledge on RSV vaccine and disease, vaccine safety concerns and lack of previous discussions on RSV vaccination with a health care worker.
According to the survey, only 17.7% reported that a health care worker asked to discuss RSV vaccination at their most recent vaccination visit, while only 22.3% recommended RSV vaccination.
“RSV disease is now a vaccine-preventable disease, with available vaccines providing the opportunity to improve and save the lives of many older adults. However, results from this study indicate that additional effort is needed to ensure that older adults who are at highest risk of severe RSV disease are actually getting vaccinated,” La said.
She added that while RSV awareness has increased significantly among this population since the vaccines first became available, there is still work to be done to overcome barriers and increase vaccination rates.
La noted that RSV vaccination uptake during the current season was considerably lower than for influenza vaccines, which may be in part due to the stronger ACIP recommendations for influenza vaccination.
“As a result, health care professionals will need to play a critical role in initiating discussions with their patients about RSV vaccination and providing strong recommendations for vaccination where appropriate,” La said. “Switching RSV vaccination recommendations from shared clinical decision-making to age-based recommendations also would likely help to improve uptake and ensure equitable access to RSV vaccines across all older adults.”
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La E. Poster Abstract 23. Presented at: NFID Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research; May 8-10, 2024.
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