Background:

The effectiveness of the influenza vaccine has made it a recommended intervention for people at high risk, including adults over 65. This work aimed to analyse the trends of annual vaccination rates, and identify subgroups in the population that have a significant risk of not receiving the vaccine.

Methods:

For the first objective, the source of information was the data reported by the Ministry of Health. To determine the trends in vaccination an analysis of interrupted time series was conducted. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out with the National Health Survey (ENSE) of 2017 for the second objective.

Results:

The rate of influenza vaccination showed an absolute annual decrease of 1,2 points since the 2006-07 season (95% CI: 0,8%, 1,6%). The prevalence of vaccination in 2017 was 54,9%. The variables independently associated with a higher probability of the influenza vaccine were males, older age, born in Spain, having more visits to the doctor, with prescription of medications, having a chronic illness, being non-smoker, and the lower consumption of fruits.

Conclusions:

The coverage of the flu vaccine in the population aged 65 and over is not only below the recommendation of the World Health Organization and indicated by the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, but is significantly decreasing every year. Sub-groups with lover vaccination rates (women, younger than 75 years, foreign born, with less visits to primary care, no prescription of medicines, no chronic diseases, smokers and with higher intake of fruit) should be targets to develop campaigns and programs to increase their uptake of influenza vaccination so it could provide its potential population benefit.

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