Abstract
Access to the influenza vaccine pose little barriers in developed countries such as Singapore and vaccination against influenza is highly recommended for at-risk populations including older adults. However, vaccination rates are much lower than recommended despite the significant morbidity and mortality associated with the disease among this vulnerable population. Given timely goals to increase vaccine acceptance and uptake, we explored Singaporean older adults’ misperceptions about influenza disease and vaccine. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted among 76 Singaporean adults aged 65 and above with no focus on a specific area in Singapore. Data were analyzed with grounded theory methods to understand participants’ attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge. We developed in vivo codes that reflect the verbiage used by participants and exhaustively catalogued themes through a constant comparison coding method. Focusing specifically on older adults’ misperceptions, seven main themes about influenza disease or vaccine emerged from our data analysis: familiarity with influenza, misperceptions about influenza, personal susceptibility to influenza, familiarity with the influenza vaccine, misperceptions about the influenza vaccine, misperceptions about influenza vaccine usage, and opinions about and barriers to influenza vaccine uptake. Notably, there is a lack of adequate knowledge and motivation in vaccinating against influenza among older adults in Singapore. Health communication needs to be more tailored toward older adults’ message processing systems and engage health professionals’ involvement in addressing the influenza disease and vaccine misperceptions identified in this study.
Highlights
Preventing the spread of infectious diseases like influenza is a high-priority public health challenge
Following the interview protocol approved by Nanyang Technological University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), all participants were first informed of study objectives as well as the interview procedures and length, and subsequently requested to provide their written informed consent prior to their participation
Our approach of constant comparison resulted in 132 first-level codes and we focused on 95 codes that reflected our study scope, which were refined into 7 main themes and classified into two topic areas of perceptions about 1) the influenza disease, and 2) the influenza vaccine (Table 2)
Summary
Preventing the spread of infectious diseases like influenza is a high-priority public health challenge. Influenza contributes to approximately 290,000 to 650,000 global deaths annually [1]. Seasonal influenza in Singapore presents significant health burdens with 15 influenza-related deaths among every 100,000 people and influenza-associated deaths are 11 times higher.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
