Increasing child vaccination coverage can reduce influenza cases across age groups: An agent-based modeling study

Objectives

Availability of caregiver-administered nasal spray live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) raises the potential for increased influenza vaccine uptake. Direct and indirect benefits (decreased influenza cases and hospitalizations) of increased uptake among school-age children may be realized across the age spectrum. We used an agent-based model to determine the extent to which increased vaccination of children might affect overall influenza epidemiology.

Methods

The Framework for Reproducing Epidemiological Dynamics (FRED) uses a population based on the US census and accounts for individual characteristics to estimate the effect of changes in parameters including vaccine uptake, on outcomes. We modeled increases in vaccine uptake among school-age children 5–17 years old on influenza cases and hospitalizations by age group.

Results

Increasing vaccination rates in school-aged children by 5%−15% decreased their symptomatic influenza cases by 3.2%−10.9%, and among all age groups by 3.3%−11.6%, corresponding to an estimated annual reduction in cases of 522,867–1,810,170 among school-age children and of 1,394,687–4,945,952 overall. Annual U.S. hospitalizations could decrease by as much as 49,977, with the greatest impact (23,258) in those ages 65 years and over.

Conclusions

The opportunity to increase vaccination coverage in school-age children using LAIV can have a positive impact across all ages.