Children with birthdays late in the year more likely to receive flu vaccine
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Children born in the months of September through December were significantly more likely to receive an influenza vaccination than those with earlier birthdays, researchers reported.
The difference, presumably, is that preventive visits for young children typically occur near their birthday, said Christopher Worsham, MD, a clinical and research fellow at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, who analyzed commercial insurance claims data from more than 1.2 million children aged between 2 and 5 years.
According to their analysis, a significantly higher percentages of children with birthdays in the later months of the year, closer to influenza season, were vaccinated against influenza. Vaccination rates were 52.7% for children born in September, 55% for October, 53.1% for November and 50.6% for December. In comparison, 41.8% of children born in July received the vaccine, the researchers reported.
“What this study showed was that the way we structure care for kids age 2 to 5 is resulting in some kids getting the flu shot and others not — a problem that was hiding in plain sight that we found by taking advantage of the fact that these young kids tend to have their checkups near their birthday — and that there is room for improvement when it comes to vaccinating this population,” Worsham told Healio.
Additionally, the researchers found that children born in later months were less likely to be diagnosed with influenza compared with those born in earlier months — for example, 4.5% of children born in September vs. 5.2% of children born in July.
“For clinicians, the takeaway should be that simple things like scheduling appointments for their patients can potentially have unintended health consequences, so it might be worth taking a second look at how routine care is done, especially when it comes to influenza vaccination, which is so important,” Worsham said. “For policymakers and health care leaders, the takeaway should be that making vaccines easier to get can increase vaccination rates and improve public health. Regulations that make it harder to get a flu shot, such as laws preventing pharmacies from giving vaccines to kids under 5 [years], should be reexamined.”
The study also determined that children aged older than 5 years did not necessarily schedule preventive visits and vaccination appointments around birthdays.
“Many pediatricians are already very proactive when it comes to reminding parents to get their children vaccinated against the flu,” Worsham said. “But simple reminders may not be enough. Perhaps focusing efforts and messaging on helping parents find the most convenient place to vaccinate — whether that is at the doctor’s office or not — might help improve vaccination rates.”
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