[Low adherence to 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) vaccination program among health care workers of a medical centre during the pandemic phase]

Abstract

Introduction: Several strategies have been designed to increase adherence to vaccination programs aimed at health professionals, though the results were not always satisfactory.

Material and methods: The differences between adherence to seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccination were assessed after the implementation of a vaccination program, and the predicting factors of adherence to the pandemic vaccine were identified. The adverse effects of this vaccine were analysed by means of a follow up e-questionnaire.

Results: The results revealed that 7.6% of professionals were vaccinated against pandemic influenza, and 33.7% against seasonal influenza. Statistically significant differences were observed for both vaccines when comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated professionals for age, professional category and workplace, while sex differences were only related to pandemic influenza. The highest rate of pandemic influenza vaccination was found among men older than 55 years old working as physicians in acute care hospitals. In the multivariate model, which showed a very good discriminatory power (Area under ROC curve=0.843), age, professional category, workplace and previous vaccination against seasonal influenza were independent predicting factors of vaccination against pandemic influenza. The main reason for vaccination was patient protection. The most frequent adverse effect was pain in the injection area.

Conclusions: Adherence to pandemic influenza vaccination program was very low, which suggests the need to implement new strategies into vaccination programs. The main reason for vaccination was patient protection. The tolerability of the pandemic vaccine was good.