Abstract Rationale Although vaccination is one of the most effective public health interventions against communicable disease, growing vaccine hesitancy threatens the success of well-established vaccination programs. Patient knowledge, prior experiences, risk perception, trust, and religious or moral convictions can contribute to vaccine hesitancy (1,2). Mediums like social media and news outlets may reflect a population’s changing attitudes towards vaccination over time (3). Pulmonologists are in a unique position to understand vaccine hesitancy in their own practice. This project aims to evaluate the association between vaccination status and willingness to participate in an interview about vaccine decision making in a pulmonary clinic. We also examine whether different times of the year or societal factors impact willingness to engage in discussions. Methods We conducted a retrospective subset analysis of forty-four patients who were contacted to participate in an interview about vaccine attitudes in a pulmonary clinic between 9/12/2024 and 4/25/2025 as part of a larger vaccine quality improvement initiative. Demographic data including sex, age, race and the dates of their most recent COVID-19 and influenza vaccines were abstracted from the medical record. Data was reconciled with the state immunization database. Patients were then stratified by vaccination status. Willingness to be interviewed in a quality improvement interview was used as a surrogate for whether patients were amenable to having a discussion regarding vaccination status. Odds ratios were calculated to evaluate the association. Results Among forty-four patients contacted about participation in a patient interview, 52% (n = 23/44) had ever received a flu vaccine, and 70% (n = 31/44) had ever received a COVID-19 vaccine. Patients who were ever influenza vaccinated were more likely to agree to an interview (78% (n = 18/23) vs. 22% (n = 5); p = 0.02; OR: 4.00 (95% CI: 1.02, 15.63), p = 0.047). Patients who were vaccinated against both influenza and COVID-19 at least once were also more likely to agree to have an interview (84% (n = 16/19) vs 16% (n = 3/19); p = 0.01; OR: 5.8 (95% CI: 1.21, 27.85, p = 0.03). In 2024, 85% (n = 17/20) of ever flu vaccinated patients were willing to be interviewed about vaccines. In comparison, in 2025, only 33% (n = 1/3) of ever flu vaccinated patients were willing to be interviewed. Conclusions In a single pulmonary clinic, patients who were vaccinated against influenza and COVID-19 were more likely to agree to be interviewed about vaccines. Although the sample size was small, this association decreased in 2025 compared to 2024. This abstract is funded by: None
Cruse et al. (Fri,) studied this question.