Vaccination take-up and health : evidence from a flu vaccination program for the elderly

Ylenia Brilli, Claudio Lucifora, Antonio Russo, Marco Tonello

We analyze the effects of a vaccination program providing free flu vaccine to individuals aged 65 or more on take-up and hospitalization. By using linked patient-general practitioner (GP) data, we implement a regression discontinuity design around the threshold at age 65. We find that the program increases vaccination take-up by 6 percentage points, which corresponds to 75% of the take-up for non-eligible individuals, and reduces the probability of hospitalization by about 44%. We show that the effect on take-up is not entirely due to an income channel, and that the effect on health is mainly driven by patients with higher-quality GPs and emergency hospitalizations.

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Year of publication:	[2019] ; This version: June 2019
Authors:	Brilli, Ylenia ; Lucifora, Claudio ; Russo, Antonio ; Tonello, Marco
Publisher:	Milano, Italy : Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Subject:	vaccination \| influenza \| public health \| health prevention policies \| Impfung \| Vaccination \| Infektionskrankheit \| Infectious disease \| Gesundheit \| Health \| Gesundheitsvorsorge \| Preventive care \| Gesundheitspolitik \| Health policy \| Arzneimittel \| Pharmaceuticals \| Ältere Menschen \| Elderly people \| Sterblichkeit \| Mortality