Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Inequalilty in Vaccination

There has been some dispute to whether or not there is inequality in the distribution of vaccination. This inequality exists between social class, racial/ethnic groups, and between age groups. It seems that the greater the gap in income is between the rich and the poor within a country, the lower the life expectancy and higher death rate. This is due health care coverage and the unresponsiveness of the governments in these countries to the needs of the lower class. By modestly increasing national income could support disease prevention, including vaccination, therefore increasing in areas where life expectancy is low.

One case study on the flu vaccine was found that showed the inequality between multiple groups. It focused on vaccination coverage in racial/ethnic inequalities within high risk adults. In the United States, influenza and pneumonia combined were the sixth leading cause of death in 1997 and also lead in the causes for hospitalization. The influenza vaccination is an extremely cost-effective way of decreasing these statistics. Some groups within the population are at more of a risk to having flu related complications. These groups include the elderly and immune deficient. There are also some disparities in the quality of health in certain ethnic and racial groups. It shows that Black Americans are less likely to get the flu vaccine than White Americans. When the researchers looked at patients with two or more high risk conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma, they found that White Americans were more likely to be vaccinated than Black Americans. They also found that in spite of race and ethnicity, people over the age of 65 were more likely to be vaccinated then people 64 years or under. Racial/ethnic disparities were also found to be interdependent of gender, socioeconomic status, and access to health care. It seems that there is some reasoning behind the differentiation of vaccination rates, one being that there are fewer opportunities for people of certain racial/ethnic groups to be vaccinated. If effective strategies were implemented to increase vaccination rates, such as health care providers being sure to offer the flu vaccine to all patients during flu season, then there would be less differentiation in vaccination rates between racial/ethnic groups as well as other subpopulations.

Sources:

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/sen.php

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1448155

3 comments:

  1. Most insurance plans cover child vaccinations. And if one doesn't have one of these or one at all, the government will pay for it. There are also free clinics that will vaccinate children. How does this fit into the inequality?

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  3. I agree about making it more available to people. My health insurance won't cover my flu shot unless I get it from my primary care physician. My primary care physician will only offer flu shots on certain days, so I ended up just paying $30 at a clinic to get it. Also, I think that the reason why flu shots are so high among people over 65 is because they are a high risk group and it is highly recommended for them.

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