Influenza vaccination among the older adults can effectively prevent influenza infection and reduce the outbreak of influenza and influenza-like diseases. This study examined the preferences and heterogeneity of preferences among community-dwelling older adults for influenza vaccines and key attributes of the vaccination process. We aimed to inform the development of demand-driven influenza vaccination strategies. Using a multi-stage cluster sampling approach, 654 older residents of Shihezi City, China, were surveyed. Preferences for influenza vaccination attributes were assessed with a mixed logit model to estimate relative attribute importance, willingness to pay, and heterogeneity across sociodemographic and health-related characteristics. Respondents consistently favored vaccines characterized by a lower incidence of adverse events, high protection rates, and lower out-of-pocket costs. Acceptance was greater when perceived disease severity was high and when vaccination was delivered within the community. The relative importance of vaccine attributes was as follows: incidence of non-serious adverse events (32.38%), protection rate (32.28%), vaccination site (18.54%), disease severity (11.75%), and incidence of serious adverse events (5.06%). Participants were willing to pay and additional 176.50 yuan and 391.00 yuan to reduce the incidence of non-serious adverse events from 50% to 20% and 10%, respectively. Substantial preference heterogeneity was observed by sex, marital status, education attainment, and self-rated health status. Vaccine safety and effectiveness are pivotal detriments of influenza vaccination decisions among community-dwelling older adults. Tailoring vaccination strategies to reflect these preferences, and to account for subgroup differences, may improve influenza vaccination rates in this population.
Li et al. (Tue,) studied this question.