Influenza immunization in Canada’s low-income population

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Characteristics of low-income sample, relationship between household income and confounders, and influenza immunization

	Overall study sample		Influenza immunization (in last 12 months)
	Unweighted n (n = 10373)	%	Yes (%)	No (%)
Type of publicly funded influenza immunization program
Universal^*	3279	34.9	40.2	32.3
High risk^†	4841	49.5	41.9	53.2
Recent universal^‡	2253	15.6	17.9	14.5
Influenza immunization (in last 12 months)
Yes	4312	32.5
No	6061	67.5
Over 12 months ago	1910	20.3
Never	4151	47.2
Main source of household income
Employment income	2189	34.7	18.4	42.6
Social assistance^§	2516	29.2	23.5	31.9
Seniors’ benefits	5668	36.1	58.2	25.5
Age (5 year category)
Median (50-54)	733	7.5	6.5	8.0
Gender
Male	3565	40.7	31.4	45.1
Female	6808	59.3	68.6	54.9
Immigrant
Yes	1419	25.2	25.3	25.2
No	8954	74.7	74.7	74.8
Highest level of household education
< Secondary	4235	30.4	39.1	26.1
Secondary graduate	1589	15.0	15.3	14.9
Some post-secondary	753	9.0	6.8	10.0
Post-secondary graduate	3796	45.7	38.8	49.0
Self-perceived health
Poor	1073	8.9	11.6	7.6
Fair	2355	19.4	27.1	15.7
Good	3374	31.7	32.3	31.4
Very good	2492	25.0	21.2	26.9
Excellent	1079	15.0	7.9	18.5

^*Provinces and territories with universal publicly funded programs included; Ontario, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.
^†Provinces with publicly funded high risk programs included; Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Quebec, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island (Prince Edward Island provides the influenza vaccine free of charge but charges a fee for vaccine administration for non high-risk groups).
^‡Provinces that implemented a universal publicly funded program during the study period included; Nova Scotia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
^§Employment insurance or worker’s compensation or welfare.
Characteristics of low-income (<$20,000 per annum) Canadian Community Health Survey sample 2009-2010, limited to valid responses (weighted analysis).

ISSN: 1471-2458