Strategies for Increasing Adult Vaccination Rates

At a glance

CDC is committed to helping health care professionals improve adult vaccination rates and reduce the number of missed opportunities for vaccinations.

A Call to Action: Protect all adults from vaccine-preventable diseases

Vaccinations play a vital role in routine health care for adults. They provide protection against severe illness, disability, and death from many infectious diseases such as COVID-19, influenza, HPV-related cancers, and pneumococcal disease. Despite the exceptional benefits of vaccines, the vast majority of adults are missing one or more routinely recommended vaccines.

As a health care professional, you are the most valued and trusted source of health information for your adult patients. Getting a recommendation from their health care professional is the strongest predictor of adults getting vaccinated. CDC is committed to helping health care professionals improve adult vaccination rates and reduce the number of missed opportunities for vaccinations.

All clinicians and other health care providers, such as pharmacists, occupational health professionals, and clinical subspecialists, can help by implementing the National Vaccine Advisory Committee's Standards for Adult Immunization Practice.

The Community Guide: Vaccination Programs

The Community Guide is a collection of evidence-based recommendations and findings from the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). This free resource can help you choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in your community. Systematic reviews are used to assess which program and policy interventions may be right for your community or practice based on factors like proven effectiveness, cost, and return on investment.

You can access CPSTF findings for interventions to increase appropriate vaccinations. The Community Guide discusses a wide range of vaccination programs including home visits to increase vaccination rates, reducing client out-of-pocket costs, client reminder and recall systems, and provider reminders. CPSTF also publishes a table of approaches for increasing vaccination with summaries of the findings for each intervention.