Childhood influenza vaccination insights

Key findings summary 

Annual influenza vaccination is recommended in Australia for children aged 6 months to less than 5 years of age. Despite this, only about 1 in 4 children under 5 years of age is vaccinated against influenza. 

After peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of young children vaccinated against influenza has been steadily decreasing. Given younger children are at higher risk of hospitalisation due to influenza than other age groups, the decline in vaccine uptake is concerning and highlights the need to investigate barriers to parents vaccinating their young children against influenza. 

Social science researchers from the National Vaccination Insights project conducted a nationally representative survey of 2,000 parents to understand the barriers to uptake of influenza vaccine among children under 5 years of age.

A summary of key findings from the survey is accessible via the link below.

Explore the key findings

A project to understand influenza vaccination barriers

The survey used the Vaccine Barriers Assessment Tool (VBAT), which was adapted for childhood influenza. The adapted VBAT assesses 14 barriers relating to:

• vaccine access (i.e. parents’ practical difficulties)
• vaccine acceptance (i.e. parents’ thoughts and feelings about vaccines and parents’ social influences).
   

What did the team analyse?

The researchers calculated how common access and acceptance barriers were across two cohorts:

• not intending parents (i.e. parents who did not intend to vaccinate their young child against influenza)
• intending parents (i.e. parents who intended to vaccinate their young child against influenza).
   

The team explored potential associations between barriers and parents’ intention to vaccinate by comparing:

• barriers reported by not intending parents and intending parents. 

Parents who were unsure if they would vaccinate their child against influenza were not included in this analysis.
 

The team also explored potential associations between barriers and other characteristics by comparing:

• barriers reported by parents experiencing financial stress and parents not experiencing financial stress
• barriers reported by parents living in metro-regional areas and parents living in rural-remote areas. 
   

A peer-reviewed paper that includes comprehensive findings from the survey has been published in Vaccines and can be found here.

About the project