Comparing routine and crisis vaccination to close equity gaps in Canada
Researcher(s)
Anh N.Q. Pham, Michelle Driedger, Jillian Kohler, Janice Graham, Kelley Lee, Ève Dubé
Key takeaways
- No single database currently brings together vaccination data across Canadian provinces, making it difficult to see the national picture of who is and isn’t getting vaccinated.
- There is no harmonized procedure for accessing or linking vaccine data across provinces, so researchers must work with each provincial data steward separately.
Overview
Some Canadians get their flu shot every year without a second thought. Others rarely get vaccinated at all – for influenza or COVID-19. Researchers are using provincial health data to find out who is left behind, why, and what it costs for hospital visits and health outcomes.
The study will compare “routine” influenza vaccination with “crisis” COVID-19 vaccination to separate long-standing systemic barriers from pandemic-specific ones.
Additional information
Influenza vaccines have been available in Canada for decades, yet uptake still falls short of national targets, and gaps persist across socio-demographic and geographic lines. In contrast, the COVID-19 vaccine arrived under emergency conditions, shaped by evolving evidence and unprecedented public messaging. By studying both, researchers can start to untangle which barriers to vaccination are persistent and systemic, and which are specific to moments of crisis.
Using administrative data from British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia, the team will examine vaccination records, neighborhood-level deprivation and income data, primary care access, and hospital and emergency department records for community-dwelling adults. The goal is threefold:
- Identify which populations are systematically under-vaccinated for influenza.
- Connect those gaps to downstream health outcomes like hospitalizations and ED visits.
- Draw lessons that can inform more equitable vaccination policy and better pandemic preparedness going forward.
Next steps
- Acquire ethics and data access approval across participating provinces and institutions.
- Begin data cleaning and province-specific analysis, starting with British Columbia and Quebec.
- Share early findings through policy briefs and academic publications aimed at public health agencies and primary care organizations.