Knowledge, attitudes, and practices for the use of seasonal influenza vaccination, healthcare workers, Costa Rica

Abstract

Introduction: Annual seasonal influenza vaccination in healthcare workers prevents nosocomial transmission to patients, coworkers, and visitors, and reduces absenteeism. This study aimed to describe knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of seasonal influenza vaccine among public healthcare workers attending patients in Costa Rica.
 Methodology: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of healthcare personnel attending patients in public hospitals in 2017–2018. Frequency distributions of demographics, vaccination KAP, sources of information, clinical manifestations and reasons for non-vaccination were reported. Logistic regression was used to analyze associations between exposures of interest (demographics, sources of information, knowledge, attitudes towards vaccination) and self-reported influenza vaccination.
 Results: We surveyed 747 healthcare workers in 2017–2018. Of 706 participants who knew their vaccination status, 55.7% were vaccinated for seasonal influenza. Only 20.7% of participants knew the influenza vaccine was an inactivated virus, and 94.6% believed the vaccine causes flu-like symptoms. Factors associated with current influenza vaccination were vaccination in previous year (aOR: 8.13; 95% CI: 5.65–11.71) and believed influenza vaccination may be harmful (aOR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.44–0.89). Reasons for non-vaccination included fear of adverse effects and access limitations.
 Conclusions: Suboptimal influenza vaccination among healthcare workers may be attributed to misconceptions about the vaccine and limited engagement strategies focusing on healthcare workers. Appropriate interventions are needed to increase healthcare worker vaccination rates and improve their knowledge and beneficence, which would improve patient safety in hospitals.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with frequent influenza vaccination among healthcare personnel in Peru, 2016─2018

“…Overall, about 60% of HCP infrequently received influenza vaccines over an eight-year period; this population with low influenza vaccine uptake was primarily physicians and HCP who worked in an outpatient setting. Similar trends in low influenza vaccination coverage have been seen among HCP in KAP studies in Honduras [17] , Costa Rica [18] , Egypt [19] , and parts of the Middle East [20] . This low coverage was also seen in the general HCP population recruited into this study but excluded from analysis.…”

“…To increase vaccination uptake, hospitals could decrease barriers to vaccination by increasing availability of convenient times or places to receive vaccines. Lack of time to receive a vaccine was repeatedly reported as a barrier to vaccination in prior KAP studies in similar settings [17] , [18] , [20] and was found to be the main driver for infrequent vaccination among people reporting barriers to vaccination. Currently in Peru, influenza vaccination for HCP is not mandated by employers and campaigns vary by location; some hospitals coordinate cars to bring vaccines to HCP locations, while others offer drop-in vaccination at hospitals.…”

Influenza Vaccination Uptake and Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers in Early 2021 at the Start of the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout in Cape Town, South Africa

“…On the contrary, HCWs in studies carried out in Greece and Costa Rica reported that concern about the effectiveness of flu vaccines was the most common barrier among other factors to flu vaccination [ 62 , 63 ]. However, these studies reported low, suboptimal, and decreasing influenza vaccine coverage in HCWs, despite their positive attitudes toward the influenza vaccine.…”

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Influenza Vaccination among Older Adults in Southern China during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Previous studies focused on the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of healthcare professionals, pregnant women, travelers, and general workers towards influenza virus and vaccination in different countries and regions [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. A satisfactory level of knowledge related to COVID-19 and its prevention among the Italian elderly was found [ 18 ], which promised a positive attitude and practice towards vaccination.…”