Social deprivation indexes and anti-influenza vaccination coverage in the elderly in Sardinia, Italy, with a focus on the Sassari municipality

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between social deprivation indices and anti-influenza vaccine coverage in the Sardinian elderly population (over 65yearsold).This relationship was firstly observed in a regional context. An already-known deprivation index was used, and its trivial relationship with the anti-influenza vaccine coverage was evaluated. Secondly, the same relationship was assessed for the homogeneous area of the Municipality of Sassari. This required adoption of an ad hoc deprivation index, which allowed us to stratify the population into deprivation groups and to correlate the vaccine coverage to socio-economic variables.Results showed that the regional anti-influenza vaccine coverage linearly increased with the decrease in the deprivation. This trend was confirmed for the Municipality of Sassari. Pearson's analysis highlighted factors that significantly correlate to vaccine coverage.In Sardinia, the relationship between anti-influenza vaccination coverage and socio-economic health status was consistent with the international panorama, therefore highlighting the necessity to arrange interventions to promote vaccination coverage in the elderly population