Survey Reports

IC Surveys 2024

Influenza Vaccination Amongst Children Under 5 Years

1022 parents that have a child/children under 5 years old were interviewed across all major geographic, demographic & socio-economic factors.

The latest survey by the Immunisation Coalition reveals concerning trends in influenza vaccination among children under 5 years.

Despite the availability of free vaccinations, vaccination in this age group continues to decline and only 41% of parents know that vaccination is free under the NIP. Misinformation and parents believing influenza is not a serious disease are the leading causes of low vaccination rates in this age group.

Based on these survey results, the Immunisation Coalition calls on the government and healthcare providers to proactively recommend vaccination against influenza using a variety of effective communication channels and spokespersons, and to address the misunderstanding that influenza is not a serious disease and that vaccination is the best means of protection. This is a complex multifactorial issue that will take years to address but can be achieved through education and effective communication to both HCPs and the general public.

Key findings

• Nationally, only 27% of children under 5 years were vaccinated against influenza this year, with the highest rates in the ACT (45%) and lowest in WA (22%).
• Only 45% of parents were aware that children under 5 years are recommended to be vaccinated.
• Only 41% of parents are aware that the influenza vaccine is free for children under 5 years.
• Key reasons not to vaccinate were 1) the belief that influenza is not a serious disease, 2) vaccination does not protect their child against influenza and 3) safety issues.
• As with other surveys, the best recommendation to a parent to vaccinate their child is from a GP or HCP. More work needs to be done to support and remind HCPs to recommend vaccination against influenza each year starting in April/May.
• Misinformation and anti-vaccine sentiment continues to affect vaccination rates, with 29% exposed to misinformation and 26% to anti-vax sentiment. This is predominantly through social media channels like Facebook, X and TikTok, and information on online websites.
• Major misinformation themes include doubts about vaccine effectiveness, fear that it causes influenza and that influenza is not a serious disease.
• Among those parents choosing not to vaccinate their children, common reasons include 1) safety concerns, 2) a belief that influenza vaccination is unnecessary if a child has recently had influenza, 3) it is natural for children to catch influenza and 4) my child is healthy and does not need to be vaccinated.

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Australian General Practice Influenza Vaccination Insights Survey: post-COVID-19 analysis:

As a follow up to the General Population Influenza survey, the Immunisation Coalition conducted a General Practice survey to gain insights from general practice on the attitudes of the general public on influenza vaccination post COVID-19.

The results confirm some of the findings from the previous General Population Influenza survey.

These include:

• 46% of the public do not believe that influenza is a serious illness or do not believe in vaccination benefits against influenza.
• 59% said that the public attitude towards influenza has changes since COVID- 19 and 63% also believe that the public attitude towards communicable infectious diseases has also changed post COVID-19.
• 82% believe the public are more informed of the benefits of vaccination (against COVID-19) gained from personal experience, news and media and public health campaigns
• COVID-19 has raised awareness for vaccination but has caused vaccine fatigue, hesitancy and disengagement amongst the general public.
• 73% believe that misinformation is impacting vaccination rates, and that this misinformation is coming mainly from social media.
• 61% said GPs/Practice Nurses are having to explain more about vaccines/ vaccination post COVID-19.
• 69% believe combination vaccines will increase vaccination rates.
• 46% believe that governments and HCPs should be the leading sources of information and 84% said that Federal and State governments should play a greater role addressing vaccination rates with awareness campaigns with clear and consistent messaging.

Overall, COVID-19 has raised awareness of viral infections and the need to vaccinate against them. However, the pandemic has resulted in vaccine fatigue and hesitancy. A leading cause of this is social media misinformation. This needs to be addressed to restore public confidence for the benefits of vaccination against infectious diseases, particularly seasonal viruses like Influenza.

More needs to be done on disease awareness and effective communication and messaging programs to address declining vaccination rates, particularly seasonal infectious diseases.

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Australian General Population Influenza Survey:

The Immunisation Coalition conducted a large Australia-wide consumer survey in March 2024 just prior to the official start of the flu season. Some of the findings are concerning:

• Only 29% said they intended to get vaccinated this year, down 4% from the previous year.
• 54% felt that influenza is a serious disease (38% said it was not).
• 55% did not see vaccination as a benefit or being important.
• 54% thought the best time to get vaccinated was in May or June.

There are other very interesting insights into how Australians view influenza vaccination. We invite you to read the report.

Overall, more needs to be done on disease awareness and effective communication and messaging programs to address low influenza vaccination rates.

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IC Surveys 2023

Children & Influenza Vaccination:

This survey was conducted in August and September 2023.

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General Practitioner Survey:

This survey was conducted in April and May 2023. The data in this survey is currently being analysed by the University of Queensland’s School of Public Health in preparation for journal publication.

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We wish to thank the survey investigation team:

• From the School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia: Harriet Lawford, Sheleigh Lawler, Luis Furuya Kanamori, Maggie Miller, Colleen Lau and Amalie Dyda
• Dr Deb Mills, The Travel Doctor
• Kim Sampson, Immunisation Coalition

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Adult Vaccination (Aged 50+):

This survey was conducted in February 2023. The data in this survey is currently being analysed by the University of Queensland’s School of Public Health in preparation for journal publication.

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GP Attitudes to Adult Vaccination:

This survey was conducted in March 2023. The data in this survey is currently being analysed by the University of Queensland’s School of Public Health in preparation for journal publication.

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IC Surveys 2022

Australians and Vaccinations November 2022:

This survey was conducted in November 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population. Questions cover the impact of missing out on important life events and the decision to get vaccinated using 15 focus groups, 1,508 telephone interviews and 23,511 online interviews.

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Australians and Vaccinations September 2022:

This survey was conducted in September 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population. Questions cover the impact of missing out on important life events and the decision to get vaccinated using 15 focus groups, 1,502 telephone interviews and 23,523 online interviews.

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Australians and Vaccinations – Fear of Missing Out June 2022:

This survey was conducted in June 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population. Questions cover the impact of missing out on important life events and the decision to get vaccinated using 15 focus groups, 1,503 telephone interviews and 23,519 online interviews.

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Australians and Vaccinations – Children June 2022:

This survey was conducted in June 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population. Questions cover children and vaccinations using 15 focus groups, 1,503 telephone interviews and 23,519 online interviews.

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Australians and Vaccinations  – Influenza June 2022:

This survey was conducted in June 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population. Questions cover the influenza vaccine using 15 focus groups, 1,503 telephone interviews and 23,519 online interviews.

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Australians and Vaccinations – General Attitudes & Knowledge June 2022:

This survey was conducted in June 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population. Questions cover the general attitude and knowledge of vaccinations using 15 focus groups, 1,503 telephone interviews and 23,519 online interviews.

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GP CoRiCal Survey:

This survey of Australian General Practitioners was conducted in April 2022 and covers 5 questions about CoRiCal – the COVID Risk Calculator.

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Australians and Vaccinations April 2022:

This survey was conducted in March 2022 and is representative of the Australian adult population across all states and territories. Questions cover 7 vaccine preventable diseases using 15 focus groups, 1,509 telephone interviews and 23,533 online interviews.

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IC Surveys 2020-2021

Survey of Australian Pharmacists:

This survey of Australian Pharmacists was conducted in November 2021 and covers 4 questions about influenza vaccination in 2021 and 2022. Answers were received from 108 face-to-face interviews and 1,511 online surveys.

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Adolescents & Children: Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Vaccination:

This survey was conducted in October 2021 from 15,073 participants of The Australian population from the age of 18 years (the general public and parents).

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Australians & Health Survey August-September 2021:

This survey includes 9 questions about influenza and shingles vaccination.

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Australians & Immunisation Survey July-August 2021:

This survey includes 7 questions about adult vaccination.

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Australians & Vaccination Survey June 2021:

This survey includes questions about influenza, pertussis (whooping cough) and COVID-19 vaccines as well as attitudes towards vaccines.

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Influenza Vaccination 2021: Attitudes & Intentions April 2021:

This survey includes 17 questions about influenza and COVID vaccination in Australia.

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COVID-19 Survey August-September 2020:

This survey of the general Australian population covers 12 questions about COVID-19 concerns, testing and vaccination.

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Australian General Practitioners Survey May 2020:

This survey of Australian GPs covers 10 questions about vaccine supply.

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Influenza Vaccination Survey March 2020: 

This survey includes 11 questions about influenza vaccination in 2019, intentions for vaccination in 2020 and attitudes towards influenza.

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