Objective  To examine the cognition on influenza and influenza vaccine and the vaccination of influenza vaccine and its related factors among community coronary heart disease (CHD) patients.

  Methods  We conducted a face-to-face survey with a self-designed questionnaire in an urban district of Xuzhou city, Jiangsu province during August – September 2018. The participants of the survey were 1 826 CHD patients registered in 3 community healthcare service centers selected by random cluster sampling. Binary logistic regression analysis was adopted to explore influencing factors of influenza vaccination.

  Results  Among the respondents with valid information were collected from 1 711 (93.70%) of the CHD patients; of them, only 74 had previous vaccination of influenza vaccine, with a self-reported vaccination rate of 4.32%. The results of logistic regression analysis revealed that the respondents living with someone having higher education were more likely to have influenza vaccine vaccination (odds ratio OR = 0.733); while, the respondents without some knowledge about influenza and influenza vaccine were less likely to have influenza vaccine vaccination: being not aware of influenza prevention measures (OR = 4.012), the protective effect of influenza vaccine on CHD patients (OR = 1.970), and that influenza virus could cause viral pneumonia (OR = 2.196) (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  The influenza vaccination rate is relatively low among community patients with coronary heart disease in a district of Xuzhou city and the patients′ vaccination are mainly influenced by their knowledge about influenza and influenza vaccine and their cohabitants′ education. The results suggest that targeted health education on influenza vaccination should be promoted among both the patients and their cohabitants.