Pertussis vaccination in a cohort of older Australian adults following a cocooning vaccination program

While recommendations to vaccinate adults against pertussis exist, information on uptake for adult tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis vaccine (Tdap) among older adults is limited.

We used data from the 45 and Up Study, a prospective cohort of adults aged ≥45 years who completed a questionnaire between 2012 and 2014 asking about pertussis vaccination. We evaluated Tdap uptake following a program providing free vaccine for adults in contact with young children between 2009 and 2012.

Among 91,432 adults (mean age = 66.3 years, SD = 9.6), 3.1% (n = 2823) reported receiving Tdap prior to the program. This increased seven-fold to 21.8% (n = 19898) after the program finished. Tdap coverage was almost twice as high in women compared to men and among adults more likely to be grandparents than those not.

These findings suggest that funding for a targeted program can help to substantially increase vaccination coverage as well as decrease disparities in the uptake of Tdap in different sub-groups.