We are researching the reasons why older adults in the UK choose to be vaccinated or not. This relates particularly to vaccination offered by the NHS to people aged 65 and over: influenza (flu) vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, shingles vaccine and now also the COVID-19 vaccine.
We hope to understand the many reasons behind older adults’ vaccination decisions to improve the current vaccination programme. More broadly, we hope to contribute to keeping older people fit and well. This includes understanding older adults’ views on how vaccination can help to achieve this.
The research team based at the University of Bristol is conducting online focus groups to investigate why older adults choose to be vaccinated or not. The discussion groups will take place online using Zoom. To find out more about using Zoom, please download this guidance document:
Take part in the research
If you are aged 55 and over, and living in one of the study areas in the UK we would like to hear from you. The research will include the following local authority areas:
- Bedford, East of England
- Birmingham, West Midlands
- Bradford, Yorkshire & Humber
- Manchester, North West
- Newcastle upon Tyne, North East
- Newham, London
- Tewkesbury, South West
- Wellingborough, East Midlands
- Wycombe, South East
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Perth & Kinross, Scotland
- Cardiff, Wales
- Pembrokeshire, Wales
- Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon; Northern Ireland
- Belfast City, Northern Ireland
Please see the:
to read more about the study. If you would like to take part in an online focus group discussion, please let us know by completing this short questionnaire.
Research timeline
- August–December 2021 and Spring 2022: Participants sought for online focus groups
- October–December 2021 and Spring 2022: Focus groups take place online
- Throughout 2022: Sharing research findings with the public, the research community and policy-makers.
Sharing research findings
A variety of publications will be made available once the data analysis has been completed. These will be added to this website over winter and spring 2021–2022.
If you would like to hear about events where the research findings will be discussed, please contact the research team via
grp-vaccinesinolderadults@groups.bristol.ac.uk.
Funder
This project is funded by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol as part of a portfolio of five research projects led by Dr Hannah Christensen.
Research team
Hannah Christensen, Taru Silvonen, Joanne Coast, Yoav Ben-Schlomo, Joanna Kesten and Christie Cabral.
Share this page