Prevalence and correlates of vaccine hesitancy among general practitioners: a cross-sectional telephone survey in France, April to July 2014

Abstract

This article sought to estimate the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy (VH) among French general practitioners (GPs) and to study its demographic, professional and personal correlates. We conducted a cross-sectional telephone survey about GPs’ vaccination-related attitudes and practices in 2014 in a national panel of 1,712 GPs in private practice, randomly selected from an exhaustive database of health professionals in France. A cluster analysis of various dimensions of VH (self-reported vaccine recommendations, perceptions of vaccine risks and usefulness) identified three clusters: 86% of GPs (95% confidence interval (CI): 84–88) were not or only slightly vaccine-hesitant, 11% (95% CI: 9–12) moderately hesitant and 3% (95% CI: 3–4) highly hesitant or opposed to vaccination. GPs in the latter two clusters were less frequently vaccinated and reported occasional practice of alternative medicine more often than those in the first cluster; they also described less experience with vaccine-preventable diseases and more experience with patients who they considered had serious adverse effects from vaccination. This study confirms the presence of VH among French GPs but also suggests that its prevalence is moderate. Given GPs’ central role in vaccination, these results nevertheless call for a mobilisation of stakeholders to address VH among GPs.

Seasonal influenza vaccination among people with diabetes: influence of patients’ characteristics and healthcare use on behavioral changes

“…26 For example, providing communication training to healthcare workers, together with tailored information sheets and patient education websites, should be evaluated for increasing SIV uptake, as it has been shown to be an effective strategy for increasing uptake for HPV vaccine. 28 As healthcare workers are also prone to vaccine hesitancy, 29,30 and SIV coverage remains suboptimal among them in many countries, [29][30][31][32] health authorities should also promote and evaluate multicomponent interventions to promote SIV among healthcare professionals. The strengths of this study include its large sample size, and the use of a combination of different criteria to identify patients with diabetes with various clinical features (Supplementary Table 1).…”

Investigating Italian parents' vaccine hesitancy: A cross-sectional survey

“…Several studies regarding the hesitancy in both parents [18][19][20][21] and in health care workers [22][23][24] have been published, but to the best that we could ascertain no previous research are currently available in Italy regarding childhood vaccine hesitancy among parents. Thus, to address this knowledge gap, the present crosssectional survey was designed to assess the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy and to identify factors associated with vaccine hesitancy among a sample of parents of children aged 2 to 6 years in Italy and the results could be used to target optimal public health strategies to improve overall vaccination coverage.…”

General Practitioners' Propensity to Cooperate With Other Health Professionals in the Management of Patients With Multimorbidity and Polypharmacy: A Cross-sectional Study.

“…We conducted a cross-sectional survey about the management of patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy, nested in a panel of GPs in private practice in France. The panel design has been described in previous publications [17,18]. In brief, we randomly selected GPs from the exhaustive French database of health professionals (Répertoire Partagé des Professionnels de Santé) between December 2013 and March 2014.…”