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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jan 3.
Published in final edited form as: Vaccine. 2016 Apr 24;34(24):2671–2678. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.04.039

Table 2.

Reasons for non-vaccination by race/ethnicity, adults and children, 2011–12 influenza season, National Flu Survey*, United States.

Adults
Children
Hispanic Black only,
non-Hispanic		 White only,
non-Hispanic		 Other or
multi-race,
non-Hispanic		 Hispanic Black only,
non-Hispanic		 White only,
non-Hispanic		 Other or
multi-race,
non-Hispanic
Overall, n (unweighted) 1642 1765 11051 1125 644 446 1876 468
Unvaccinated % (weighted) 61.2 64.4 50.9 59.7 35.7 45.8 49.5 31.7
Unvaccinated, n (unweighted) 913 941 4936 608 248 198 886 173
Adults
Children
Hispanic Black only, non-Hispanic White only, non-Hispanic Other or multi-race, non-Hispanic Hispanic Black only, non-Hispanic White only, non-Hispanic Other or multi-race, non-Hispanic
Reasons % ± 95% CI† % ± 95% CI % ± 95% CI % ± 95% CI P‡ % ± 95% CI % ± 95% CI % ± 95% CI % ± 95% CI P
Allergic to the vaccine 2.4 ± 1.1bw 5.3 ± 2.3h 4.2 ± 0.8h 4.3 ± 2.7 0.04 1.3 ± 1.1 3.5 ± 3.7 2.1 ± 1.1 2.0 ± 3.5 0.61
Don’t like needles/shots 23.1 ± 5.4wo 19.5 ± 4.9 14.3 ± 1.9h 15.3 ± 4.6h 0.01 18.2 ± 6.8 18.6 ± 8.3 25.1 ± 4.8 31.7 ± 13.0 0.17
Concerns about getting the flu from the vaccination 27.0 ± 5.1b 40.9 ± 6.3hwo 25.2 ± 2.2b 21.2 ± 5.7b <0.001 29.7 ± 9.2 44.4 ± 11.7wo 24.0 ± 5.0b 19.0 ± 7.5b 0.01
Concerns about side effects from the vaccine 33.6 ± 5.6 39.8 ± 6.3wo 28.4 ± 2.3b 29.3 ± 7.5b 0.01 36.3 ± 9.4 43.4 ± 11.4 32.7 ± 5.2 32.5 ± 10.5 0.38
Have an ongoing health condition 5.7 ± 2.2 7.0 ± 2.6 4.9 ± 1.0 6.2 ± 3.2 0.41 16.9 ± 8.3wo 7.3 ± 7.1 2.6 ± 1.6h 1.1 ± 1.7h <0.004
Never get the flu 41.3 ± 5.9 40.2 ± 6.3 42.6 ± 2.5 38.7 ± 7.1 0.75 38.1 ± 10.1 29.3 ± 9.7 35.1 ± 5.3 27.5 ± 10.9 0.40
Unlikely to get very sick from the flu 51.2 ± 5.9 49.9 ± 6.4 53.1 ± 2.5 51.7 ± 8.0 0.79 44.3 ± 10.2 32.9 ± 10.4 44.3 ± 5.6 36.0 ± 11.5 0.21
Not in a high risk group 27.9 ± 5.3wo 27.7 ± 5.9wo 37.4 ± 2.5hb 42.2 ± 8.0hb <0.001 33.8 ± 9.4 22.1 ± 7.9w 39.4 ± 5.4b 34.4 ± 11.8 0.02
Think flu vaccines do not work very well 23.2 ± 4.6 22.2 ± 5.1 25.5 ± 2.5 27.5 ± 7.6 0.47 29.5 ± 9.4 29.6 ± 10.4 26.6 ± 5.0 32.5 ± 11.0 0.77
Don’t trust government/doctors 25.5 ± 5.6 20.1 ± 5.4 21.1 ± 2.5 15.2 ± 5.1 0.07 22.7 ± 8.2 29.2 ± 11.6 20.5 ± 4.8 16.2 ± 8.5 0.37
The vaccine costs too much 18.4 ± 4.3w 15.4 ± 5.0 10.2 ± 1.7ho 18.1 ± 6.5w <0.001 8.8 ± 5.4 2.6 ± 2.1 5.4 ± 2.8 3.2 ± 2.3 0.12
Didn’t have time 28.0 ± 5.0w 22.0 ± 4.9o 22.5 ± 2.0ho 34.5 ± 8.0bw 0.01 25.2 ± 10.4 17.7 ± 11.0 14.7 ± 3.9 14.7 ± 6.8 0.34
Some other reason 7.4 ± 2.7 10.2 ± 3.9 9.6 ± 1.6 11.5 ± 4.3 0.31 10.6 ± 6.2 4.4 ± 3.6 10.0 ± 3.2 7.3 ± 4.4 0.12
*

Based on interviews conducted March 1–29, 2012.

†

Weighted % and 95% Confidence Interval half-width.

‡

The P-value is from the overall chi-square test of racial/ethnic group (4 categories) by reason given, yes versus no (2 categories).

The presence or absence of superscripted letters h, b, w, o (h = Hispanic, b = black, w = white, o = other/multiple race) denotes whether that estimate was statistically significantly different at P < 0.05 from another racial/ethnic group and denotes which group(s) it differed from based on the post-hoc pair-wise comparison t-tests. For example, the percentage of Hispanic adults giving the reason “allergic to the vaccine” (2.4%) was statistically significantly different from the percentage of black adults giving this reason (5.3%) and the percentage of white adults giving this reason (4.2%).