Opportunity

The influenza (flu) virus contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality each year. Although the vaccine has been shown to effectively reduce disease and economic burdens, vaccination rates remain low at under 50 percent nationally. 

Prior research has focused on patient perceptions of vaccination, but few studies have explored other factors related to flu vaccination during primary care visits.

Intervention

We leveraged publicly available and objective electronic health record data to identify patients in our health system’s primary care practices who were eligible for vaccination at the time of a visit during flu season. We then designed prediction models to identify patient, physician, and environmental factors associated with flu vaccination.

Impact

Our analysis identified significant predictors of flu vaccination at the patient, physician, and environmental levels. For example, things like appointment time of day, physician training and experience, patient race, and weather were associated with variations in vaccination rates. 

Findings from this analysis can be leveraged to inform the design of new, more targeted interventions to increase flu vaccination rates.