Influenza vaccine hesitancy and its influencing factors among community-dwelling older adults in Shihezi City, Xinjiang, Western China

Objective: This study aims to examine the prevalence of influenza vaccine hesitancy and its associated factors among community-dwelling older adults in Shihezi, Xinjiang, thereby informing evidence-based strategies to enhance influenza vaccine uptake in older adults.Methods: A multi-stage cluster random sampling method was adopted to conduct a questionnaire survey among 1,540 community-dwelling older adults in Shihezi City, Xinjiang, in July 2023. Chi-square tests, univariate analysis, and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to examine the factors associated with influenza vaccine hesitancy among older adults.Results: Among the 1,474 older adults who completed the survey with valid responses, the prevalence of influenza vaccine hesitancy was 54.5% (804/1474). Univariate analysis showed that age, marital status, chronic diseases, self-rated health, knowledge of influenza and influenza vaccines, perceptions of vaccine efficacy and safety, recommendations from healthcare providers, prior vaccination history, and certain subscale scores of the 5C scale were significantly associated with vaccine hesitancy (p?