Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination Among Male Veterans and Nonveterans, 2016-2018

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends persons aged ≥6 months receive an influenza vaccination annually, and certain adults aged ≥19 years receive the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine alone or in series with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, depending on age, chronic conditions, and smoking status. This study examines the prevalence of influenza and pneumococcal vaccination relative to Healthy People 2020 goals to understand how vaccination receipt differs by veteran status and sociodemographic subgroups.

We analyzed pooled data from the 2016-2018 National Health Interview Survey (N = 35 094) in 2021 to estimate the prevalence of influenza and pneumococcal vaccination for men aged 25-64 years and for men aged ≥65 years by veteran status and selected sociodemographic subgroups. We used 2-tailed t tests with an α = .05 to identify significant differences.

Among men, 44.7% of veterans and 33.5% of nonveterans aged 25-64 years and 71.0% of veterans and 64.9% of nonveterans aged ≥65 years received an influenza vaccine in the past year. Among men aged 25-64 years at high risk for pneumococcal disease, 35.9% of veterans and 20.8% of nonveterans had ever received ≥1 dose of any pneumococcal vaccination. Disparities in the prevalence of vaccination within examined sociodemographic characteristics were often smaller in magnitude among veterans than among nonveterans for both vaccinations.

Vaccination rates were below Healthy People 2020 targets for both groups, except influenza vaccination among veterans aged ≥65 years. Understanding differences in vaccine uptake may inform efforts to improve vaccination rates by identifying subgroups who are at high risk of disease and have low vaccination rates.