Identifying early changes in influenza vaccination uptake following a government funded immunisation program using a participatory community surveillance program

Abstract

Background/methods
Following Australia’s severe influenza season in 2017, the health departments of the states and territories
commenced funding in 2018 of influenza vaccine for all children aged six months to five years.
As the national immunisation register has recently been extended to include recording of vaccination
for all age groups, Australia’s community-based influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance system,
Flutracking, was used to explore influenza vaccine coverage in participants.
Flutracking participants respond to a weekly survey about ILI from April to October each year.
Participants report their influenza vaccine status with the current year’s vaccine in the first weekly
survey, and if unvaccinated (or unknown), participants are prompted with the question weekly until
the end of the Flutracking season. Detailed methods for Flutracking are available elsewhere.1
Self-reported vaccine coverage by age group (<5 years, 5 to 17 years, 18 to 64 years and ≥65 years) was
calculated at 21 October (timing of the final 2018 Flutracking survey) for participants who had completed
at least one survey in 2018. The five-year average was calculated for the percentage vaccinated
at the end of the Flutracking survey for the years 2013 to 2017, and compared to 2018.
Flutracking received ethics approval from the University of Newcastle (# 06/03/22.403) in 2006.
In 2009 the program applied to the University of Newcastle to exit the ethics committee review as
Flutracking had been incorporated into the national influenza surveillance system.
The total number of participants completing at least one survey increased from 18,437 in 2013 to
45,532 in 2018. Flutracking participants are more likely to be female (59.8% compared to 50.4%) and
more likely to have completed a postgraduate degree (22.6% compared to 3.6%) than the general
Australian population.2 A relatively large proportion of Flutracking participants are health care workers,
working face to face with patients (17.5%).