Background and Objective: While newborn and childhood vaccination is widely known and utilized worldwide, adult immunization is not applied widely. Therefore, about 30,000 adults die yearly from preventable diseases. The routine vaccination of adults are considered unsatisfactory also in our country. The aim of this research is to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and behaviors of adults about adulthood immunization in Maltepe, Istanbul. Methods: An observational and descriptive study was carried out in Maltepe, Istanbul between March 20th and May 6th, 2016 in a total of 16 family health centers which were randomly selected from each neighbourhood. A questionnaire form inquiring the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and behaviors about adult immunization was applied with face-to-face interviews to participants who were over the age of eighteen. Results: A total of 318 participants were included in the study. Of the participants, 222 females (69,8%) and 96 were males (30,2%). Mean age was 43,4±15,8 years (min. 18, max. 87). Education level was high school and above in 55% of the subjects. The most commonly known vaccine was the influenza vaccine (89,3%), the least known vaccine was the shingles vaccine (32,3%). While tetanus vaccine was the most commonly used (42,1%) followed by, the 23,9% for influenza (23,9%), and hepatitis B (18,2%) , 0,3% (n=1) had been vaccinated for HPV. The confidence for the effectiveness of the vaccines was the highest for hepatitis B (60,4%), and the lowest for influenza (40,9%) and HPV (48,1%). Media was the most commonly used source of knowledge about adult vaccination (27,7%). A statistically significant difference was not detected between the patients who had/did not have a chronic disease or the patients who were using medications regularly or not with regard to vaccination against influenza, pneumococcus and tetanus (p>0.05). The most common reasons for not getting vaccinated were "having insufficient knowledge about the vaccine" (42,5%) and "deeming it unnecessary" (41,2%). Conclusion: The results of the study have revealed that the participants did not have sufficient knowledge about adult vaccination and vaccination rates were low. So it may be targeted to improve the knowledge level of the community through using media and primary care institutions as effective sources of knowledge.
