Comparing the Attitude toward the COVID-19 and the 2020/21 and 2019/20 Flu Vaccination Campaigns among Italian Healthcare Workers

Abstract

Background: While the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare workers (HCWs) is suboptimal, vaccine hesitancy has not been characterized in detail in this population. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of health-related conditions reported by HCWs during the COVID-19, 2020/21 flu, and 2019/20 flu vaccination campaigns, so to test the hypothesis that HCWs were more prone to report health conditions during the COVID-19 campaign. Methods: We analyzed vaccination questionnaires of 176 hospital-based HCWs who underwent the COVID-19 and the 2020/21 flu vaccinations; 2019/20 flu vaccination questionnaires were available for 130 of them. Outcomes included self-reported allergies, chronic diseases, and use of medications. We tested for prevalence equality, analyzed differences using the kappa statistics and concordance correlation, and explored factors associated with differences in reporting. Results: There was no difference in the proportion of HCWs reporting allergies in the three questionnaires, while chronic diseases were more frequently reported in the COVID-19 than in both 2020/21 (p = 0.04) and 2019/20 flu questionnaires (p = 0.02). Furthermore, a higher proportion of HCWs reported medications use in the COVID-19 vaccination questionnaire, compared to both the 2020/21 and the 2019/20 flu vaccination questionnaires (p < 0.001 for both). In each vaccine campaign, women reported more conditions than men, and the difference between chronic disease reports was greater for women than for men. Conclusions: Our results show more frequent reporting of health conditions during the COVID-19 than the flu vaccination campaigns, providing quantitative evidence of hesitancy of HCWs towards the COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccination Confidence among Healthcare Workers: Results from Two Anamnestic Questionnaires Adopted in the COVID-19 and Influenza Campaign

“…Moreover, there was also an increase in the prevalence of subjects reporting chronic use of medications, with a concomitant increase in the number of drugs taken per capita. These results confirm the data from the previous Italian study [19].…”

“…In addition, we observed a higher proportion of drug allergies reported on the COVID-19 questionnaires compared to the influenza questionnaires, coupled with a higher number of drug allergies reported. These results are comparable to those of the previous Italian study [19].…”

“…Some discrepancies were found between the frequency of drug allergies reported on the COVID-19 vaccine questionnaire compared to the influenza questionnaire by job title (e.g., healthcare technicians reporting more conditions than physicians). This is consistent with the results of the Bologna study [19]. Further multicenter studies with a larger number of participants are needed to identify subgroups of HCWs who are more hesitant towards vaccination.…”

“…Concern about side effects and general hesitancy regarding the vaccine may have caused those who underwent the procedure, including HCWs, to fill in the COVID-19 questionnaire more carefully than in the case of more common and familiar practices, such as the influenza vaccination. To investigate this hypothesis, the present work replicates another Italian study [19] analyzing and comparing the questionnaires of the 2020/2021 influenza vaccination to that of the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in a population of Italian HCWs.…”

“…The present study serves as a comparison to the previous study performed in Italy [19], however, this study was conducted on a larger sample of HCW and in a different setting in order to understand whether different variables influenced the reporting of multiple items at the time of filling the questionnaire.…”