Table 3.

Reasons for not taking the influenza vaccination among study participants from Poland*

	Percent of participants in age group
Reason for not taking influenza vaccination	18-54 years (n = 344)	55 years and more (n = 163)	total (n = 507)
Good health	31.4†	18.4†	27.2
Lack of belief in vaccination effectiveness	14.8	20.9	16.8
High cost of vaccination	9.3	10.4	9.7
Lack of time	10.8	5.5	9.1
Used to treat influenza with natural remedies	3.5	6.7	4.5
Due to the health state (chronically sick, was sick in the vaccination period)	2.9	2.5	2.8
Did not have an opportunity to receive vaccination	1.5	3.1	2.0
Had vaccination in previous years, and thinks that it is not necessary to repeat it	2.0	1.8	2.0
Vaccination reduces immunity; once vaccinated, one have to repeat it every year	2.3	0.6	1.8
Difficult to say	21.2	28.8	23.7

*For the open question “Why have you not taken a vaccine against influenza?”; patients were allowed to give more than one answer. This question was only answered by those who had not received vaccination within 12 mo before the study, hence the number is lower than the total number of participants (507 vs 640).

†χ² test, P < 0.01.