Study finds most Portuguese support vaccination

A new national study has revealed that almost 95 percent of Portuguese adults recognise the benefits of vaccination, yet many are unaware of which vaccines are recommended for them.

By Kate Sreenarong, in News, Health · 07 Oct 2026, 15:04 · 0 Comments

Credits: Unsplash; Author: Mufid Majnun;

The survey of 1,500 people aged 18 and over found a clear gap between positive attitudes towards vaccination and knowledge about the vaccines available throughout adulthood.

As reported by Jornal Económico, the findings suggest that many people support vaccination in principle but lack enough information to make informed decisions about their own protection.

National programme

The study, Barreiras da Vacinação em Portugal, was conducted between 28 May and 4 August 2026 among adults with and without chronic illnesses.

While 94.4 percent of participants recognised the benefits of vaccination, 63.9 percent did not know which vaccines are included in Portugal’s National Vaccination Programme (PNV).

Among people without a chronic condition, that figure rose to 76.4 percent.

Half of those surveyed (50.2 percent) were also unaware of which vaccines are recommended for their age group or health condition, despite 41 percent of participants living with a chronic illness.

Furthermore, knowledge was even lower when it came to adult vaccines outside the national programme, as 90.5 percent had never heard of these, while 62.1 percent could not name any vaccines they would like to see included in the future.

Seasonal vaccination

This survey also examined why some adults do not receive their annual flu or covid-19 vaccinations.

The most common explanation was that people did not believe they were at risk, cited by 38.8 percent of those who did not get vaccinated, while half said seasonal vaccination was not a personal priority, rising to 67.5 percent among people without chronic illnesses.

Among those with chronic conditions who had overdue vaccinations, representing 7.6 percent of the overall sample, around 45 percent knew they were behind but did not believe vaccination was necessary.

The study also found that 74.9 percent of respondents had never heard the terms “vaccine hesitancy” or “vaccine fatigue”, but 56.8 percent associated the concepts with serious public health problems.

However, more than one in five said they had never considered how other people’s vaccination decisions could affect herd immunity and community protection.

Lack of information

More than half of those surveyed, 51.3 percent, did not identify any barriers to vaccination.

Among those who did, the most common concerns were fear of side effects, at 22.3 percent, followed by a lack of information at 16.1 percent and doubts about effectiveness at 15.7 percent.

A lack of medical advice was cited by 10.1 percent, while 6.8 percent mentioned distrust of health authorities or the pharmaceutical industry.

Healthcare professionals appear to play an important role in whether vaccination is discussed.

Almost three-quarters, 74.9 percent, of people with chronic illnesses said their doctor raises vaccination during consultations. Among those without chronic conditions, the figure fell to 43.3 percent.

The gap is particularly noticeable among younger adults, as more than one in five people aged 18 to 35, or 21.7 percent, said their doctor never discusses vaccination with them.

Common jabs

This study found that, apart from Covid-19 and flu, relatively few respondents had received other vaccines during the previous five years.

The covid-19 vaccination was administered to 80.3 percent of participants, while 53.3 percent had received the flu jab.

These figures were considerably lower for other vaccines, including pneumococcal vaccination at 7.5 percent, HPV at 4.9 percent, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) at 1.5 percent and shingles at 1.3 percent.

José Albino of the Movement of Patients for Vaccination (MOVA), which commissioned the survey, said the results show a need for more public information.

He argued that Portugal should strengthen its national vaccination programme to cover adulthood more systematically, rather than relying mainly on recommendations that many people are unaware of.

The findings were presented on 7 October in Lisbon at the conference Vaccination Throughout Life: Challenges and Opportunities in Portugal, organised by the Portuguese Association of People with COPD and Other Chronic Respiratory Diseases, the organisation that founded MOVA.