Real-World Effectiveness of the Influenza Vaccine in Young Children
利用大型行政医疗数据，研究发现季节性流感疫苗的可得性使幼儿接种率提高23.4个百分点，并显著减少门诊和急诊就诊，表明提高接种便利性可降低医疗支出。
Influenza causes substantial illness among children. RCTs demonstrate that the influenza vaccine reduces active-surveillance-detected influenza but have insufficient samples to examine outcomes such as health care provider visits. This study documents that children whose well-child visits occur when the seasonal influenza vaccine is broadly available are 23.4 pp more likely to be vaccinated than children whose visits do not. Using large administrative health care datasets, we leverage this vaccination-rate variation to show that the vaccine reduces outpatient and ED visits significantly. The results imply that making pediatric influenza vaccinations more convenient could substantially increase vaccination rates and reduce health care expenditures.