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

Ylenia Brilli, Claudio Lucifora (), Antonio Russo and Marco Tonello

No def082, DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: vaccination; influenza; public health; health prevention policies. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I18 J10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44
Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/economia-finanza-def082.pdf First version, 2019 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Vaccination take-up and health: Evidence from a flu vaccination program for the elderly (2020)
Working Paper: Vaccination Take-up and Health: Evidence from a Flu Vaccination Program for the Elderly (2020)
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