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U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

“African Americans Less Likely to Get Flu Vaccine” Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com)

(02/19/02); Mozes, Alan

A recent study led by Dr. Matthew G. Marin of the New Jersey Medical School in Newark found that even with equivalent health care access, African Americans are less likely to get vaccinated against the flu than white people.  Marin and colleagues evaluated data covering the overall utilization of health care services by 21,000 men and women in the United States for the year 1996, focusing on 2,300 African American, white, and Hispanic people of both sexes between the ages of 65 and 94 years old.  The results of the study showed that only 47 percent of African Americans obtained a flu vaccine in 1995, compared to 68 percent of whites and 62 percent of Hispanic Americans.  In his final report, published in the current issue of Preventive Medicine, Marin concludes that research explaining the contrast ought to focus on the psychological dimension, or the perception of the health care system among African Americans, rather than any external causes.

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