GP246 Specialists’ attitudes to vaccination today: results of the questionnaire survey

• Published in: Archives of disease in childhood 2019-06, Vol.104 (Suppl 3), p.A132
• Main Authors: Petrova, Alla, Vanyarkina, Anastasiya, Shugaeva, Svetlana, Rychkova, Lyubov, Moskaleva, Ekaterina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Age groups; Children; Childrens health; Epidemiology; Immunization; Immunoprophylaxis; Pediatrics; Questionnaires; Vaccines
• ISSN: 0003-9888; 1468-2044
• DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2019-epa.305

People’s attitude towards immunization reflects not only understanding of efficacy and safety of preventive vaccination, but also confidence to the health care system in general. Current decreasing of the confidence level to vaccination in the European region (in 2017 this index reached 83%) demands that specialists know how to improve and retain confidence to programs of immunization, and how to maintain accumulated experience of preventive vaccination.AimTo assess the specialists’ attitude and knowledge about vaccination.Materials and MethodsSixty-two specialists, working at Irkutsk Perinatal Centre (III Level), participated in an anonymous questionnaire survey, conducted from November to December 2018. The original questionnaire contained 12 questions on demographic characteristics, attitude to vaccination (including personal confidence in vaccines), and sources specialists usually use to know about vaccination. The following specialists participated in the survey: neonatologists (n=35), intensivists (n=15), pediatricians (n=7), obstetricians (n=5). They belonged to following age groups: 21 to 30 years – 23 (37%), 31 to 40 years – 24 (38.7%), 41 to 50 years – 11 (17.7%), and older 51 years – 4 (6.6%).ResultsAll respondents considered vaccination as a safe and reliable method against infections. The majority (n=44; 71%) believed it was necessary to recommend parents not only compulsory vaccination, included in the National Vaccination Schedule, but also immunization according epidemiological indications and vaccination against currently widespread infections. Many respondents (n=55; 88.7%) considered necessary to lawfully influence parents’ decision not to vaccinate their children. More than half of specialists (n=37; 60%) vaccinated their children with both mandatory and recommended vaccines. Sixty six point one percent of respondents considered their knowledge about vaccination insufficient. At the same time, knowledge about vaccination was lower in age groups from 21 to 30 years and from 31 to 40 years (n=21; 91.3% and n=12; 50%, respectively). However the analysis of dependence between specialties and knowledge in all age groups did not reveal significant differences (p=0.6). Respondents received information about vaccination predominantly from reading specialized medical literature (n=50; 82.6%), during participation in conferences and workshops (n=39; 63%), and using specialized web resources (n=32; 51.6%).ConclusionDespite having confidence in vac