Association of Provider Recommendation and Receipt of Influenza Vaccine Among Pregnant Women by Race and Ethnicity

Background: All pregnant women and those who may become pregnant are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to receive the flu vaccine to prevent severe illness in the woman and infant. Despite the increased risk for complications in this population, flu vaccine uptake in pregnant women was 68.1% in the 2020-2021 flu season, with disparities by race and ethnicity. We sought to describe associations between provider recommendation with flu vaccine uptake by race and ethnicity in Tennessee women with a recent live birth.Materials and Methods: Weighted analysis used data from the 2016 to 2020 Tennessee Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System complex survey analysis procedures. Uptake was measured as receipt of flu vaccine in the 12 months before the most recent live birth, and positive recall of receiving provider advice to get the shot was the independent variable; for both we estimated 5-year averages stratified by race/ethnicity. Differences were assessed using chi-square tests. We modeled receipt of flu vaccine and estimated marginal predicted prevalence ratios (PRs); stratified models by race/ethnicity were constructed to estimate unadjusted and adjusted PRs.Results: The 5-year average for vaccine uptake before or during pregnancy was 56.7% but varied by race and ethnicity. Stratified bivariate analyses yielded different magnitudes of association by race/ethnicity between provider recommendation and flu vaccine receipt. After adjustment for payment source at delivery, marital status, age group, urbanicity, and maternal education, receiving a provider recommendation was strongly associated with flu vaccine uptake for all stratified models of pregnant women included in the study. The effect size was of a larger magnitude among non-Hispanic black women, a population with a lower vaccine uptake.Conclusions: Given the association between provider recommendation and vaccine uptake in all groups, attention should be focused on increasing rates of provider recommendation.