Fighting misconceptions to improve compliance with influenza vaccination among health care workers: an educational project

The compliance with influenza vaccination is poor among health care workers (HCWs) due to misconceptions about safety and effectiveness of influenza vaccine. We proposed an educational prospective study to demonstrate to HCWs that influenza vaccine is safe and that other respiratory viruses (RV) are...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-02, Vol.7 (2), p.e30670
Main Authors: Couto, Carla R, Pannuti, Cláudio S, Paz, Jr, José P, Fink, Maria C D, Machado, Alessandra A, de Marchi, Michela, Machado, Clarisse M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude of Health Personnel
Bone marrow
Education
Female
Fever
Health care
Health care reform
Health Personnel - education
Health Personnel - psychology
Health Personnel - statistics & numerical data
Hospitals
Humans
Immunization
Infections
Influenza
Influenza A
Influenza vaccines
Influenza Vaccines - adverse effects
Laboratories
Male
Medical personnel
Medical research
Medicine
Mortality
Prospective Studies
Science Policy
Surveys
Swine flu
Transplants & implants
Vaccination
Vaccination - statistics & numerical data
Vaccines
Virology
Viruses
Workers
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The compliance with influenza vaccination is poor among health care workers (HCWs) due to misconceptions about safety and effectiveness of influenza vaccine. We proposed an educational prospective study to demonstrate to HCWs that influenza vaccine is safe and that other respiratory viruses (RV) are the cause of respiratory symptoms in the months following influenza vaccination. 398 HCWs were surveyed for adverse events (AE) occurring within 48 h of vaccination. AE were reported by 30% of the HCWs. No severe AE was observed. A subset of 337 HCWs was followed up during four months, twice a week, for the detection of respiratory symptoms. RV was diagnosed by direct immunofluorescent assay (DFA) and real time PCR in symptomatic HCWs. Influenza A was detected in five episodes of respiratory symptoms (5.3%) and other RV in 26 (27.9%) episodes. The incidence density of influenza and other RV was 4.3 and 10.8 episodes per 100 HCW-month, respectively. The educational nature of the present study may persuade HCWs to develop a more positive attitude to influenza vaccination.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0030670