Creativity needed to reach minority elderly

Projects across the country are using innovative approaches to convince older Asian-, Hispanic- and African-Americans to get their flu and pneumonia shots.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. April 14, 2003.

Shirley Bordelon, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regional immunization coordinator in San Francisco, is making arrangements with a local manufacturer to have her message: "Get the flu shot, not the flu" stamped in Spanish in the middle of tortillas sold during next year's flu season. Her goal: Reaching older Hispanic-Americans who might otherwise go unprotected.

"We're so excited. We think this is going to be one of our best projects," said Bordelon, at the 37th Annual National Immunization Conference in Chicago last month. "You've got to think outside the box to reach the communities you want to speak to."

This is just one of many ideas designed to address the significant differences in vaccination rates for minority elderly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the influenza vaccination rate for Caucasians is 68%, but only 48% for African-Americans and 57% for Latinos. Asian-Americans actually do slightly better with a flu vaccination rate of 71%.

Rates for pneumococcal vaccinations, however, are even worse. Sixty percent of Caucasians receive that shot, but only 40% of Asian-Americans, 38% of African-Americans and 38% of Latinos get it.

"The minority elderly are not getting their shots," said Donald Furman, MD, chief medical officer of CareMore Medical Group in Downey, Calif. "But this is something we can do something about. The problem is simple, and the answer is fairly simple. It's not like curing cancer."

There are a lot of projects attempting to even out the disparity. Little is known, however, about what actually works and what doesn't.