Table 4.
Influenza illness beliefs and experience.
| Overall | Age | Got Flu Vaccine in Last 12 Months | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19–30 | 31–49 | 50–64 | 65+ | Yes | No | ||
| N | 1005 | 212 | 330 | 264 | 199 | 418 | 571 |
| How well informed would you say you are regarding seasonal influenza or flu? | |||||||
| Very well informed | 46.2% | 28.0% a | 47.0% b | 47.5% b | 60.4% c | 63.5% a | 33.5% b |
| Somewhat informed | 42.9% | 51.1% a | 42.7% a,b | 43.6% a,b | 35.0% b | 34.1% a | 49.5% b |
| Not well informed | 8.0% | 17.2% a | 7.2% b | 6.9% b | 1.5% c | 1.2% a | 12.7% b |
| Not at all informed | 2.9% | 3.8% | 3.1% | 1.9% | 3.0% | 1.2% a | 4.2% b |
| In general, if you do not get a flu vaccination, what do you think your chances are of getting the flu? | |||||||
| Very high | 9.8% | 2.9% a | 9.4% b | 10.8% b,c | 15.7% c | 15.6% a | 5.2% b |
| Somewhat high | 25.9% | 14.0% a | 24.9% b | 27.8% b,c | 35.7% c | 41.7% a | 14.5% b |
| Somewhat low | 32.7% | 42.1% a | 34.0% a,b | 30.7% b,c | 24.9% c | 26.9% a | 37.2% b |
| Very low | 31.6% | 40.9% a | 31.6% b | 30.7% b | 23.8% b | 15.8% a | 43.1% b |
| In general, if you get the flu, how serious do you think the illness would be for you personally? | |||||||
| Very serious | 11.9% | 3.8% a | 12.6% b | 13.1% b | 17.8% b | 16.6% a | 8.6% b |
| Somewhat serious | 32.7% | 26.1% a | 24.5% a | 40.4% b | 43.1% b | 43.1% a | 24.8% b |
| Not very serious | 46.7% | 56.9% a | 54.0% a | 38.8% b | 34.0% b | 35.9% a | 54.8% b |
| Not at all serious | 8.7% | 13.3% a | 8.9% a,b | 7.7% b | 5.1% b | 4.3% a | 11.8% b |
| In general, if you get the flu, how much impact do you think having the flu would affect your daily life? | |||||||
| A great deal | 32.8% | 22.5% a | 33.3% b | 38.8% b | 35.0% b | 43.5% a | 25.0% b |
| Somewhat | 37.7% | 37.3% | 37.3% | 34.6% | 42.6% | 35.3% | 39.2% |
| A little | 25.4% | 33.5% a | 24.5% b | 24.3% b | 19.8% b | 17.8% a | 31.0% b |
| Not at all | 4.1% | 6.7% a | 4.9% a,b | 2.3% b | 2.5% b | 3.4% | 4.8% |
| In general, if you get the flu, how likely do you think it is you could pass the flu on to someone else? | |||||||
| Very likely | 31.8% | 25.1% a | 33.8% b | 32.2% a,b | 34.5% b | 42.7% a | 24.3% b |
| Likely | 41.7% | 49.8% a | 43.7% a,b | 39.0% b,c | 34.0%c | 38.3% | 43.7% |
| Unlikely | 20.4% | 18.5% | 18.5% | 23.1% | 22.3% | 13.0% a | 25.7% b |
| Very unlikely | 6.1% | 6.8% a,b | 4.0% b | 5.7% a,b | 9.1% a | 6.0% | 6.2% |
| Self-reported influenza experience | |||||||
| Have you ever been sick with influenza or flu—that is, flu which infected your lungs? | |||||||
| Yes | 42.4% | 39.1% | 42.6% | 42.4% | 44.1% | 47.1% a | 38.9% b |
| No | 57.8% | 60.9% | 57.4% | 57.6% | 55.9% | 52.9% a | 61.1% b |
| How would you rate your last influenza or flu illness? (‘1’—not very severe to ‘5’—very severe) | |||||||
| ‘1’ or ‘2’ | 35.0% | 43.9% a | 29.8% b | 26.2% b | 47.6% a | 32.4% | 37.4% |
| ‘3′ | 36.1% | 39.4% a,b | 42.7% b | 33.0% a,b | 26.8% a | 36.9% | 34.8% |
| ‘4’ or ‘5’ | 28.8% | 16.7% a | 27.5% a | 40.8% b | 25.6% a | 30.7% | 27.8% |
| How many times would you estimate you have had influenza- or the flu—in your life? | |||||||
| Never | 21.4% | 26.6% a | 18.3% b | 21.1% a,b | 21.8% a,b | 19.0% | 23.2% |
| 1–2 times | 31.7% | 41.0% a | 27.6% b | 28.0% b | 33.5% a,b | 32.7% | 30.9% |
| 3–4 times | 27.3% | 23.4% | 30.0% | 29.3% | 23.9% | 25.5% | 28.6% |
| 5–10 times | 13.9% | 7.4% a | 17.9% b | 15.0% b | 12.8% a,b | 14.8% | 13.2% |
| 11 or more times | 5.7% | 1.6% a | 6.2% b | 6.5% b | 8.0% b | 8.1% a | 4.1% b |
Note: Comparisons are made across columns by row using the Bonferroni adjusted p-value approach with an alpha value of ≤0.05. All possible pairwise comparisons are made between categories of a given variable (e.g., age). For any given variable, rows with no superscripts have no significant differences. Within rows that do have superscripts, any two values that share a superscript are not significantly different from one another; values that do not have a common superscript are significantly different (e.g., a, b, and c are significantly different from one another). For example, in the table there are no significant differences based on age in the percentage of respondents who reported being “not at all informed” about the seasonal flu vaccine, but there are significant differences based on age for all other categories of that same variable.