Influenza and COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Individuals With Versus Without Diagnosed Psychiatric Disorders

The authors sought to examine influenza and COVID-19 vaccine uptake among individuals diagnosed as having psychiatric disorders compared with those without such diagnoses and to examine variations in vaccine uptake by sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.

The study was conducted in the Kaiser Permanente Georgia, Washington, and Southern California health care systems. Individuals with psychiatric conditions had at least one diagnosis of any psychiatric disorder during a 12-month study period; individuals in the control group had no psychiatric disorder diagnoses during this period, and the two groups were matched on age and sex. Bivariate analyses were conducted with Pearson chi-square tests; multivariate analyses were used to calculate the odds of receiving an influenza vaccine (N=1,307,202 individuals) or COVID-19 vaccine (N=1,380,894 individuals) and were controlled for selected covariates.

After controlling for relevant confounders, the authors found that having a diagnosis of any psychiatric illness was associated with significantly increased odds of receiving an influenza vaccine (OR=1.18; 95% CI=1.17–1.19, p<0.001), compared with no diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. Having any psychiatric illness was associated with decreased odds of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine (OR=0.97; 95% CI=0.96–0.98, p<0.001), after the analysis was controlled for the same covariates.

The findings provide evidence that people with mental health conditions were more likely to receive an influenza vaccine but were less likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with individuals without such conditions. However, the vaccination rates observed for individuals with and without diagnosed psychiatric conditions were below national benchmarks, suggesting room for improving vaccine uptake in both patient populations.