The attitudes and practices of health professionals towards childhood vaccines

Introduction and Objective: The attitudes and behaviors of health professionals towards vaccines and the vaccination status of themselves and their relatives may directly affect the public's approach to this issue. This study aims to evaluate health professionals' attitudes and behaviors on the issue and investigate the factors affecting this. Materials and Method: This study is a descriptive, cross-sectional study that examines the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals about vaccination. Data were collected by applying a questionnaire to healthcare professionals who are actively working at İstanbul University İstanbul Medical Faculty, through an interview. The questionnaire consisted of 3 parts and 41 questions. The first part included questions about sociodemographic information of participants. The second part included 4-point Likert Scale questions (Agree, generally agree, partially agree, disagree) investigating the factors affecting vaccine acceptance. The third part questioned hepatitis B, hepatitis A, rubella, chickenpox, mumps, measles, tetanus vaccination status of participants. In the end, vaccine acceptance score was calculated for each participant for the second part where the Likert scale was used as a vaccine acceptance rating scale. Results: Among the 859 health professionals who participated in the study, the average age was 31.3±6.6 and the average time of service was 7.8±7 years. Of the participants 22.8% were specialists, 42.3% were resident doctors and 35.9% were nurses. Vaccine acceptance scores of specialists and residents were higher than nurses. Of the participants 26.8% were working in pediatric internal/surgical departments, 73.2% were working in adult internal/surgical departments. Vaccine acceptance scores of participants working in pediatric units were found to be significantly higher. Among the participants, 327 had children. Of all participants 97.5% stated their children already had or would have routine vaccinations, 85% stated their children had or would have the additional vaccines not included in the routine vaccination schedule, and 15% stated the cost of the vaccines would affect their decision. The rate of those who had the seasonal flu vaccine was 23.7%. Vaccine acceptance scores of those who had seasonal influenza vaccines were found to be significantly higher than those who did not. Of all participants, 85.3% thought vaccines necessary for protection against infectious diseases and 88.4% thought vaccines included in the national vaccination schedule should be mandatory. Also, 48.2% of the participants stated they had sufficient information about vaccines. The participants who had less information were more likely to be affected by unfavorable news about vaccines. Among all the participants, 42.4% thought the education about vaccines they received in medical school was sufficient. Seven percent of the participants were worried about the side effects of vaccines, and the proportion of participants who were worried about the false guidance of vaccine producing companies was 6.6%. Conclusion: Even though the rate of vaccination among children of health professionals is high, the seasonal flu vaccination rates of themselves are low. They have been found to have some concerns about the safety and side effects of vaccines. The ratio of those who state their knowledge about vaccines is insufficient is high. The health professionals' hesitations on vaccines should be eliminated through education. Key Words: Vaccines, health professionals, knowledge, attitude