Health care professionals’ perspectives on life-course immunization: A qualitative survey from a european conference

Today, fewer children die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases than older adults. Health systems need new immunization strategies to tackle the burden of vaccine-preventable disease in an aging society. Alife-course immunization (LCI) approach—which entails vaccination throughout an individual’s lifespan—enables adults to age with reduced risk to disease, thereby enabling healthy, active and productive aging. We conducted an audience response system (ARS)-based survey to investigate HCPperspectives on LCI in an opportunistic sample of 222 health care professionals (HCPs) from around the world who attended a European infectious diseases conference. Survey results show that LCI is a priority for HCPs (77.4%–88.6%), with most of them stating the need to frame it as a part of a healthy lifestyle (91.0%–100.0%). Insu cient LCI recommendations by vaccine providers (12.9%–33.3%) and governments (15.2%–41.9%) and insu cient targeted budget allocation (6.1%–21.7%) were indicated as the main barriers to implement LCI, ahead of vaccine hesitancy (9.7%–15.2%). HCPs were willing to make LCI a gateway to healthy aging but need support to work together with other stakeholders involved in the vaccination journey. This could be a step towards equitable health care for all of society.