Most millenials didn’t get a flu shot, study says. Are anti-vax ideas to blame?
Most millennials haven’t gotten a flu shot this season, and anti-vaccination ideas could be behind the trend, a new study finds.
Millennials, adults 20 to 38 years old, are also the least likely age group to get vaccines to protect against the flu, a survey from the American Academy of Family Physicians shows. Fifty-five percent of millennials have not gotten a flu shot this season, and of those, 33 percent don’t plan on getting one, according to findings released Thursday.
The results come as anti-vaccination beliefsspread across the United States. People who support the movement, sometimes dubbed anti-vax, have made widely debunked arguments, including that immunizations cause autism.
But the medical academy’s survey found more than 3 out of 5 millennials “say they agree with some anti-vax beliefs.” The rate is higher than among adults as a whole, results show.
So what else could be behind millennials’ lag in vaccinations?
Some of it comes down to running out of time or just simply forgetting, excuses millennials used more frequently than other generations, according to the latest findings.
American Academy of Family Physicians says its study considered survey responses taken Nov. 27 to Dec. 9 from 1,000 adults across the country. Wakefield Research conducted the survey.
Overall, just more than half of respondents got flu vaccines, according to the results.
Nationwide, flu activity is rated “high” and “expected to continue for weeks,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Outside of the generational findings, the flu study also found “troubling anti-vaccination trends among men, parents and African Americans,” according to the news release.
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Most millenials didn’t get a flu shot, study says. Are anti-vax ideas to blame?."
