Less than a quarter of Canadian youth received influenza vaccination in the last 12 months. The study population distribution for the explanatory variables by flu shot status is displayed ATM Kinase Inhibitor in vivo in Table 1. Table 2 displays the proportion of Canadian youths for whom the suggested 14 reasons for not receiving influenza vaccination applied. The reason being recognized most often as a reason for not having received influenza vaccination in the last year was “did not think it was necessary” (40.82%), followed by “have not gotten around it” (11.97%). Bivariate logistic regressions analyses showed among youths, being male,

having a chronic condition for which influenza vaccination is recommended by the Red Book, smoking or being an immigrant were more likely to have received influenza vaccination, while moderate alcohol drinking was associated with lower odds of receiving influenza vaccination, with ORs and their 95% confidence intervals excluding 1.0. These are displayed

in Table 3. As allergy to eggs is often perceived as a contraindication to receiving the influenza vaccination, the clinical importance of this variable compelled us to keep it in the multivariate model although the 95%confidence intervals for its OR included 1.0. Household highest level of education, check details self-perceived health and age did not appear to affect the odds of receiving influenza vaccination and the 95% CI for their ORs included 1.0 for all categories, hence were not included in the multivariate model. In exploring for potential interaction between the effects of the explanatory variables on receiving influenza vaccination, we found smoking status to be an effect modifier for many of the other explanatory variables. Therefore, we are reporting the results of the multivariate

model by categories of the smoking variable. As displayed in Table 3, among non-smokers, being male, having a chronic condition for which influenza vaccination is recommended by the Red Book or being an immigrants was associated with an increased odds of having received influenza vaccination. On the other hand, having an allergy and increasing frequency of alcohol drinking was associated with decreased odds of receiving influenza vaccination. In smokers, of however, the only variable which remained strongly associated with the odds of receiving influenza vaccination was an immigrant status. This study suggests that the influenza vaccination uptake in Canadian youths is just less than 25%. This figure is similar to those reported in Germany (20%) [8] and Italy (19.7%) [9] but worse than that reported for the USA (41.7%) [10]. Given the importance of influenza vaccination in the prevention of significant morbidity and mortality in populations at risk, the vaccination rate in Canadian youths is concerning.