Influenza Vaccination Disparities in Chronically-Ill U.S. Adults: An Intersectionality Approach

William Bleser, Pennsylvania State University
Kyler Sherman-Wilkins, Pennsylvania State University
Yunfeng Shi, Pennsylvania State University

Despite well-established adult influenza vaccine programs, adult influenza vaccination rates in the United States are sub-optimal, revealing well-documented disparities by race/ethnicity, and some evidence of such disparities by sex/gender and SES. Intersectionality Theory posits that these social statuses cannot be considered separately as they intersect to shape health outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have examined them jointly in the context of influenza vaccination disparities. Linear probability model regression is used to model the main effects and interactions between race/ethnicity, sex, and educational attainment, controlling for determinants of health services utilization, using nationally-representative data of chronically-ill adults from 2011-2012 from the Aligning Forces for Quality Consumer Survey (n=7,176). Our findings represent strong evidence for the use of hierarchical, multiplicative interaction of race/ethnicity, gender/sex, and SES. Simply examining them separately would have masked several distinct findings of influenza vaccination disparities in the chronically-ill US adult population.