Immunisations: Older adults
The shingles vaccine is offered to those aged 65 and 70 years with a catch up programme offered to those aged 71 to 79 years who have not previously been vaccinated. Additionally, offered to those aged 50 years and over who are severely immunosuppressed. The pneumococcal vaccine is recommended for all people aged 65 years and over, and people aged 2 to 64 years old who are at higher risk of developing complications from a pneumococcal infection.
Latest data on shingles and pneumococcal vaccine uptake is available in the Pneumococcal and shingles vaccination data release.
The flu vaccine is currently given to all aged 50 old. Data on the flu vaccine uptake by older adults is available from from the Public Health Scotland - PHS Vaccination Surveillance dashboard. Datasets for analysts are also available on the Flu & COVID vaccinations - Datasets - Scottish Health and Social Care Open Data from Public Health Scotland.
Immunisations: Inequalities in uptake in older adults
Shingles vaccine
Differences exist in uptake of eligible groups by age, sex, deprivation and NHS Board, see the Public Health Scotland Vaccination Surveillance dashboard.
Pneumococcal vaccine
Differences exist in uptake of eligible groups by age, sex, and NHS Board, see the Public Health Scotland Vaccination Surveillance dashboard.
Flu vaccine
Differences in uptake by ethnic group and age are evident, see the Public Health Scotland Vaccination Surveillance 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.
