Are age-based strategies effective in increasing influenza vaccination coverage?: the Spanish experience.

We investigated the effectiveness of applying age-based strategies to improve influenza vaccination coverage in Spain. We described and compared influenza vaccination coverage from 2003 to 2010 between those Spanish autonomous regions (AR) that lowered the age limit to 60 y and those regions that maintained the limit at 65 y. We used data collected from two surveys covering a representative sample of the Spanish population aged ≥ 16 y [Spanish National Health Survey (SNHS) 2003/2004 and the European Health Survey for Spain (EHSS) 2009/2010].