Introduction
Vaccine Disparities
Disparities in Adult Vaccinations
While a big push has been made to improve childhood vaccination rates, adult vaccination remains poor. According to the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, vaccine preventable deaths kill more Americans every year than either traffic accidents, breast cancer, or HIV/AIDS.1 For this reason, primary care physicians need to assume responsibility for developing new strategies to improve adult immunization rates.
According to the National Immunization Survey released by the CDC in 20075:
Only 2.1% of eligible adults had received the Tdap in the previous two years
Less than 2% of patients over the age of 60 had received the shingles vaccine
Only 20% of eligible adult women had received the HPV vaccine series
Only 36.1% adults are vaccinated annually for the seasonal flu
Only 66.9% of eligible patients had received the pneumococcal vaccine