National Health Interview Survey

With the National Health Interview Survey, we can begin to approach one side of the behavioral component of flu shots, the other being the BRFSS exploratory analysis. How do adult respondents of the survey behave towards the vaccine, and what factors might be influencing this action or inaction? Below are some major categories that emerged from this data set, with accompanying narratives.

Biological Sex

We can observe that out of females, the majority receive a flu shot. Also generally out of the two groups (females and males), females are more likely to engage with receiving the vaccine. For males, it is nearly split between those who choose to receive the shot and those who do not.

sex_plot

Vulnerable Groups

With the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is being observed that individuals most at risk for morbidity and mortality are those who are older in age and who have a BMI that is considered unhealthy. Below we consider flu shot engagement for respondents older than 65. This sample is then further categorized by BMI categories. Trends will help us understand current involvement for this vulnerable group. We observe that among all BMI categories, the majority of respondents receive a flu vaccine, promising information. For those who occupy the underweight category, this difference isn’t as considerable.

age_plot

Insurance

For those who did receive a flu shot, we then consider the month this occurred. We further separate this data based on their insurance status, to see if any trends emerged dependent on coverage type. We can see from the jitter plot that for the months of September, October, and November are when the most flu shots are received. Most of the respondents have private insurance and medicaid/other public insurance follows. More notable, there still to appears be a considerable amount of those who are uninsured.

coverage_plot

Healthcare Visits

Familiarity and trust of healthcare providers can greatly influence one’s perception of flu shots. Communities that have a considerable distrust of the medical community, especially black and brown communities, are less likely to receive vaccinations due to historical and unethical treatment. Below we consider respondents who did not receive a flu shot, and observe the frequency of their visits to see healthcare providers. Data was further separated by race. Most of respondents had seen a healthcare provider within the past year. Majority of them being non hispanic white.

ggplotly(doctor_plot)

Age

The data has been divided between two plots containing respondents who received a flu vaccine and those who did not. Data was then further categorized via the education status of the respondent, ranging from never attending school to a doctoral degree.

Flu Shot Status: Yes

We can observe that those who did receive a flu shot are generally older than those who did not.

yes_age_plot

Flu Shot Status: No

We can observe that those who did not receive a flu shot are generally younger than those who did.

no_age_plot

Pregnant

For the respondents who were pregnant at the time of the survey, we grouped them by their insurance coverage to notice any trends in regards to flu shot engagement. As highlighted earlier, most of the pregnant person had private insurance followed by medicaid/other public coverage. For those with private insurance, the majority of them did receive a flu shot. However for the other insurance options, the majority of pregnant persons did not receive a flu shot.

Did you receive a shot?

pregnant_plot

Timing of Shot

The majority of those who are pregnant received their flu shot before pregnancy.

pregnant2_plot

Care Visits

Reducing the amount of individuals who need to receive emergency or urgent care is a goal of many health professionals. A deeper dive of influenza-like and pneumonia hospital admissions can be observed here.

Emergency Care

We can observe that for respondents who didn’t visit an emergency room within the year were nearly split between receiving and not receiving a flu shot.

emergency_plot 

Urgent Care

We can observe that for respondents who didn’t visit an urgent care within the year were nearly split between receiving and not receiving a flu shot.

urgent_plot

Disabilities

A major component of increasing the immunization status is ensuring that facilities are accessible for all. This is especially critical for persons with disabilities. We can observe that for those with a disability, their vaccine status, and if they have difficulty completing errands that has been categorized. We see that regardless of the amount of difficulty those have completing errands, the majority receive a flu shot.

disability_plot