Petroula Stamataki, Maria Kagialari, Georgios Kagialaris, Efthymia Grigoraki, Evagelia Angelopoulou, Effrosyni Mantzara, Glykeria Memekidou
Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Health Care Professionals Regarding Vaccination against Influenza and SARS- Cov-2 in Greece
Background
The seasonal influenza is a usual respiratory infection, caused by influenza viruses and the only protection against it, is the annual vaccination. The newly emerged Covid-19 infection is also a respiratory infection that has plagued health care systems for over the past three years and resulted in the mandatory vaccination of Health Care Professionals in most countries worldwide.
Methods
The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the seasonal influenza vaccination attitudes in HCWs, in three Hospitals in Athens and to identify the knowledge, stance and practice of HCWs about those two respiratory diseases.
A total of 289 health care professionals (33.9% physicians, 35.3% nurses and 30.8% nurse assistants) in three public hospitals completed a 32-question survey from June to December 2022. The mean age of the participants was 43.13±10.16 years and their mean years of experience were 16.32±11.043.
All data were coded accordingly and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 20.0).
Results
A total of 21.1% of the HCWs identified themselves to belong in high-risk groups and 18% lived in the same house with a vulnerable person. However, only 54.3% were vaccinated against seasonal influenza, whereas almost all were vaccinated against Covid-19. Their main source of information was through their workplace and nearly 20% of the participants reported that they gathered information from web pages, social media and blogs. Vaccination against seasonal influenza is considered by 20.4% to be a preventive measure against spreading Covid-19, however it cannot protect them against Covid-19 according to 68.2%. Finally, less than half of the study participants agree that vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 should remain mandatory for all HCWs.
Conclusions
The findings of the study may indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic had a positive impact on influenza vaccination; however influenza vaccination coverage is still low among Greek healthcare workers. This requires further investigation and may be dealt with the development of appropriate educational programs for HCWs.
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