Immunisations: Older adults

The shingles vaccine was introduced in September 2013 for those aged 70 years, with opportunistic vaccination offered to eligible individuals aged 71 to 79 years who have not previously been vaccinated. Latest data on shingles vaccine uptake is available in the Immunisation and vaccine-preventable diseases quarterly report. 

Data on the flu vaccine uptake by older adults is available from the Weekly national respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistical report and a dashboard to explore the seasonal flu vaccine uptake data is available from Public Health Scotland.

Data is also available from Public Health Scotland on the uptake of the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) by older adults.

Immunisations: Inequalities in uptake in older adults

Shingles vaccine

Table 1 shows that across 70 and 76 year old cohorts in 2017/18 uptake was greater amongst:
  • males than females;
  • those registered with GP practices in the most affluent areas than for those in the most deprived areas
Table 1. Shingles vaccine uptake rates by cohort and by gender or by SIMD quintile, 2017/18
Cohort Males Females

Most deprived quintile

 Least deprived quintile
Age 70 years 43.2% 42.6% 41.2% 47.3%
Age 76 years 37.9% 36.4% 35.8% 41.3%


For more information see Annual report Shingles (Herpes zoster) vaccine programme in Scotland for 2017/18. Note: Shingles vaccine programme annual reports have not been produced recently. 

Flu vaccine

Clear differences in uptake by ethnic group, ethnicity and deprivation are evident, see the Public Health Scotland Flu and COVID-19 vaccine uptake dashboard.

Immunisation: Factors affecting uptake in older adults

Flu vaccine

  • A systematic review of flu vaccine uptake amongst adults aged ≥65 years in high, middle and low income countries* by Nagata et al (2013), found that structural social determinants such as age, gender, marital status, education, ethnicity, socio-economic status, social and cultural values, as well as intermediary determinants including housing-place of residence, behavioural beliefs, social influences, previous vaccine experiences, perceived susceptibility, sources of information, and perceived health status influenced seasonal influenza vaccination.

* although most papers identified on high income countries

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.