Most North Carolinians Have Not Received the Seasonal Flu Vaccine This Year

In the latest High Point University Poll, 40% of North Carolinians said they have received a flu shot. Most North Carolinians (56%) said they did not receive the seasonal influenza vaccine this year.

Of those who did not yet receive the flu shot this year, only about a quarter (24%) said  they intend to receive the flu shot. A majority (62%) of unvaccinated North Carolinians said they do not intend to get the flu shot this year.

“The influenza vaccine is the most important measure you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones against complications from flu,” said Dr. Jordan Smith, assistant professor of clinical sciences in the Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy. “Early returns this year suggest that the vaccine is a good match for circulating flu viruses. Influenza activity is very high in North Carolina at the moment and clinics, urgent care centers and hospital emergency departments are seeing many patients. Getting an influenza vaccine is the best preventative measure you can take.”

The HPU Poll finds nearly two-thirds (65%) of North Carolinians over age 65 said they received a flu shot, compared with less than 40% of younger North Carolina residents.  

All adults – Flu Vaccine (November 2022)

Did you receive the seasonal influenza vaccine this year?                                            

Yes – 40%              

No – 56%               

Unsure – 3% 

All adults – Flu Vaccine Intent (November 2022)

Do you intend to receive the seasonal influenza vaccine this year? [ASKED OF THE 601 WHO SAID NO TO RECEIVING THE FLU VACCINE THIS YEAR]                                             

Yes – 24%              

No – 62%               

Unsure – 14%         

The most recent HPU Poll of 1,009 North Carolinians was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Oct. 19 through Oct. 26, as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of N.C. respondents and the SRC collected responses on its Qualtrics platform. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classic margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.0 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.1 (based on the weighting). The data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race/ethnicity and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls.

Further results and methodological details from the most recent survey and past surveys can be found at the Survey Research Center website. The materials online include past press releases as well as memos summarizing the findings (including approval ratings) for each poll since 2010.

The HPU Poll reports methodological details in accordance with the standards set out by AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, and the HPU Survey Research Center is a Charter Member of the Initiative. See more information here.

You can follow the HPU Poll on Twitter here.

Dr. Martin Kifer, chair and associate professor of political science, serves as the director of the HPU Poll, and Brian McDonald is the associate director of the HPU Poll.