Vaccination against influenza : Attitude of health care personnel in a multidisciplinary hospital in Latvia
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Date
2019-08-01
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Abstract
Health care personnel (HCP) are at high risk of acquiring influenza due to exposure to patients. However, vaccination in HCP is lower than 40% for most European countries. The aim of this study was to determine the attitude towards influenza vaccination and possible reasons for this attitude in HCP. A cross-sectional study was performed in a multidisciplinary hospital of Latvia. The sample (n = 1099) included doctors (239), nurses (418), care services (236), administrative staff (108), and technical support staff (98). Five questions addressed vaccination of planned patients and HCP, knowledge of etiological anti-influenza drugs, and their storage at the hospital for immediate use. The results revealed that the level of regular vaccination against influenza in HCP was relatively low (14%). This contrasted with a more positive attitude towards vaccination of patients (53%) and personnel (60%). This contrast provided evidence for a low level of proactive action. High expectations regarding medications covered by the hospital (82%) indicated transferring of part of personal responsibility to the organisation. Doctors demonstrated a better understanding of the problem and a higher level of vaccination. However, some of doctors' attitudes showed underestimation of influenza-associated risk.
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Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Ludmila Vīksna et al., published by Sciendo 2019. Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
attitude, influenza, primary control, secondary control, vaccination, 3.2 Clinical medicine, 3.3 Health sciences, 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database, General, SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Citation
Viksna, L, Vilcans, M, Zeltiņa, I, Leidere-Reine, A, Krumiņa, A, Koļesova, O, Ļeviņa, J & Koļesovs, A 2019, 'Vaccination against influenza : Attitude of health care personnel in a multidisciplinary hospital in Latvia', Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Section B: Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences, vol. 73, no. 4, pp. 403-406. https://doi.org/10.2478/prolas-2019-0063