Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India

Vaccination is a cornerstone of influenza prevention, but limited vaccine uptake was a problem worldwide during the 2009–2010 pandemic. Community acceptance of a vaccine is a critical determinant of its effectiveness, but studies have been confined to high-income countries. We conducted a cross-sect...

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Main Authors:	Sundaram, Neisha, Purohit, Vidula, Schaetti, Christian, Kudale, Abhay, Joseph, Saju, Weiss, Mitchell G
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Taylor & Francis 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4635903/

id	pubmed-4635903
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-46359032016-02-03 Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India Sundaram, Neisha Purohit, Vidula Schaetti, Christian Kudale, Abhay Joseph, Saju Weiss, Mitchell G Research Papers Vaccination is a cornerstone of influenza prevention, but limited vaccine uptake was a problem worldwide during the 2009–2010 pandemic. Community acceptance of a vaccine is a critical determinant of its effectiveness, but studies have been confined to high-income countries. We conducted a cross-sectional, mixed-method study in urban and rural Pune, India in 2012–2013. Semi-structured explanatory model interviews were administered to community residents (n = 436) to study awareness, experience and preference between available vaccines for pandemic influenza. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews complemented the survey. Awareness of pandemic influenza vaccines was low (25%). Some respondents did not consider vaccines relevant for adults, but nearly all (94.7%), when asked, believed that a vaccine would prevent swine flu. Reported vaccine uptake however was 8.3%. Main themes identified as reasons for uptake were having heard of a death from swine flu, health care provider recommendation or affiliation with the health system, influence of peers and information from media. Reasons for non-use were low perceived personal risk, problems with access and cost, inadequate information and a perceived lack of a government mandate endorsing influenza vaccines. A majority indicated a preference for injectable over nasal vaccines, especially in remote rural areas. Hesitancy from a lack of confidence in pandemic influenza vaccines appears to have been less of an issue than access, complacency and other sociocultural considerations. Recent influenza outbreaks in 2015 highlight a need to reconsider policy for routine influenza vaccination while paying attention to sociocultural factors and community preferences for effective vaccine action. Taylor & Francis 2015-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4635903/ /pubmed/26110454 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2015.1062956 Text en © 2015 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Sundaram, Neisha Purohit, Vidula Schaetti, Christian Kudale, Abhay Joseph, Saju Weiss, Mitchell G
spellingShingle	Sundaram, Neisha Purohit, Vidula Schaetti, Christian Kudale, Abhay Joseph, Saju Weiss, Mitchell G Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India
author_facet	Sundaram, Neisha Purohit, Vidula Schaetti, Christian Kudale, Abhay Joseph, Saju Weiss, Mitchell G
author_sort	Sundaram, Neisha
title	Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India
title_short	Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India
title_full	Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India
title_fullStr	Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India
title_full_unstemmed	Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India
title_sort	community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in pune, india
description	Vaccination is a cornerstone of influenza prevention, but limited vaccine uptake was a problem worldwide during the 2009–2010 pandemic. Community acceptance of a vaccine is a critical determinant of its effectiveness, but studies have been confined to high-income countries. We conducted a cross-sectional, mixed-method study in urban and rural Pune, India in 2012–2013. Semi-structured explanatory model interviews were administered to community residents (n = 436) to study awareness, experience and preference between available vaccines for pandemic influenza. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews complemented the survey. Awareness of pandemic influenza vaccines was low (25%). Some respondents did not consider vaccines relevant for adults, but nearly all (94.7%), when asked, believed that a vaccine would prevent swine flu. Reported vaccine uptake however was 8.3%. Main themes identified as reasons for uptake were having heard of a death from swine flu, health care provider recommendation or affiliation with the health system, influence of peers and information from media. Reasons for non-use were low perceived personal risk, problems with access and cost, inadequate information and a perceived lack of a government mandate endorsing influenza vaccines. A majority indicated a preference for injectable over nasal vaccines, especially in remote rural areas. Hesitancy from a lack of confidence in pandemic influenza vaccines appears to have been less of an issue than access, complacency and other sociocultural considerations. Recent influenza outbreaks in 2015 highlight a need to reconsider policy for routine influenza vaccination while paying attention to sociocultural factors and community preferences for effective vaccine action.
publisher	Taylor & Francis
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4635903/
_version_	1613498434570944512

Community awareness, use and preference for pandemic influenza vaccines in Pune, India

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