People admitted in the previous year with a primary diagnosis of asthma (or wheeze for children; see denominator for codes) who did not receive a funded influenza vaccine in the year following discharge.
Those who have a hospital admission for asthma are recommended to receive an influenza vaccination as they are at greater risk of severe illness and hospitalisation if they contract influenza. Pharmac funds the influenza vaccine for this group.
The criteria for funding include (only relevant criteria are shown):
a) all people 65 years of age and over; or
b) people under 65 years who have asthma, if on a regular preventative therapy, or
b) children aged four years and under who have been hospitalised for respiratory illness or have a history of significant respiratory illness. High rates of people not receiving a free funded flu vaccination in the year post discharge suggests suboptimal disease management or barriers to access.
Numerator detail
• Influenza vaccination claims in the calendar year after the year of discharge are included. The year presented is that of the vaccination.
• Publicly funded flu vaccinations administered in general practice and community pharmacy settings are included. Flu vaccinations that are administered in hospital, or self-funded or funded by another third party won’t be included here. It is expected that selffunded/alternately funded is likely to biased towards working age groups. Vaccination in hospital may be biased towards children, depending on local practice.
Disaggregation
District analysis: By year (2019 –2023), age group (0–4, 5 –11, 12 –24, 25 –44, 45 –64, 65+), gender (female, male), ethnic group (Māori, Pacific peoples, European/Other) and Health New Zealand district of domicile. PHO analysis: By year (2023), age group, gender, ethnic group, Primary Health Organisation (PHO) most recently enrolled with (for the relevant year), PHO group (small, medium, medium-large and large).
People who were excluded from analysis include:
- those who aren’t enrolled in a PHO in the calendar year. This allowed us to use the number of PHO-enrolled people as the denominator.
- individuals with missing demographics – that is, those with no recorded value for one or more of the NHI fields used to derive the demographic variables of interest (age, gender, ethnicity and district of domicile). For instance, if there are any missing values for age, they are excluded from all analyses. This approach ensures a consistent denominator throughout the analyses.
Age group is assigned using 30 June of each calendar year as the cutoff point. For example, if a person turned 45 years old on 1 July 2023, they will still be considered 44 years old for 2023.
People who died during the calendar year are excluded from this indicator.
Data is not presented where the number of people in the numerator was less than 10. This is to preserve confidentiality.