A new report published today by the Royal Society for Public Health shows that overall trust in vaccines remains high among 50–70-year-olds but stresses more must be done to reach underserved communities and raise awareness about the risks posed by infectious respiratory illnesses.
The report, ‘Never too late to change the rate’, is based on polling of over 1,500 people aged 50-70 in the UK.
The polling, conducted by YouGov, showed that:
- Overall trust remained high with 86% of people aged 50-70 think that vaccines are important to their health.
- Concerningly, only 67% of people from diverse ethnic backgrounds (non-white) know how vaccines work.
- Only 37% of people aged 50-70 are worried about the flu and 49% are worried about bacterial pneumonia.
- Only 46% of people are worried about respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) which can cause pneumonia and exacerbate chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
- 68% of people aged 50-70 are concerned about vaccine safety.
Infectious diseases pose a considerable risk for adults and older people, and flu and pneumonia alone are responsible for 8% of all deaths in people over the age of 65+.
How can we improve vaccination rates?
The report emphasises that understanding public attitudes to vaccinations and illnesses is essential to design effective vaccination programmes that reach as many people as possible.
It argues that those developing vaccination programmes should use multiple channels and communication strategies for reaching people in the 50–70-year-old age bracket, with a particular focus on underserved communities.
It calls for vaccines to be made more accessible to the public through settings such as the workplace – with time off made available for employees to receive vaccinations. It also highlights the important role that those working with or supporting older people can play.
The publication of the report comes against a backdrop of declining flu vaccine uptake and concerns from health leaders about the spread of vaccine misinformation.
The NHS autumn vaccine rollout begins in October with appointments available from September 23rd.
William Roberts FRSPH, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health, said:
“Vaccines are one of the biggest success stories when it comes to preventative public health policy. They save millions of lives around the world every year. Their success is wholly contingent on continued uptake.
The data in the report tells us an interesting story. While it is encouraging to see that overall trust in vaccines remains high, we still have a lot of work to do – particularly when it comes to reaching underserved communities. Vaccines are a key part of tackling health inequalities.
The most effective public health interventions build trust and bring services to where people are. Whether it’s through the workplace or our friends and carers, we can all play a role in making sure that the public have accessible information about the effectiveness of vaccines.
We would urge all those who are responsible for designing vaccination programmes to engage with the findings of the report.”
Moderna Biotech UK has funded this research and had no editorial input into the content. Work was reviewed for compliance with the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries Code of Conduct.
