Vaccinating healthcare workers against influenza to protect the vulnerable—Is it a good use of healthcare resources?A systematic review of the evidence and an economic evaluation

Burls, Amanda; Jordan, Rachel; Barton, Pelham; Olowokure, Babatunde; Wake, Beverley; Albon, Esther; Hawker, Jeremy

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2005.12.043

Cited by 221 publications

(174 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Although annual seasonal vaccine among healthcare workers is encouraged in Department of Health guidance [22], more specific recommendations and targeting of resources to the health care worker vaccine programme should be considered, as senior professional advice has a positive influence on uptake rates [1,9]. Many individuals would not accept prepandemic vaccine as they are unconcerned about the risk of pandemic influenza; this is consistent with observations that the belief of seasonal influenza as a mild infection is associated with non-uptake of seasonal vaccine [8,14,23]. Despite studies showing that influenza vaccines are well-tolerated, concerns over adverse effects remain a substantial barrier to pre-pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccination [8,10,11,20].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Willingness of healthcare workers to accept voluntary stockpiled H5N1 vaccine in advance of pandemic activity

Pareek

Clark

Dillon

et al. 2009

Vaccine

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Frontline healthcare workers will be at increased risk of infection during the next influenza pandemic. Proactive priming with pre-pandemic vaccine may protect staff and reduce nosocomial transmission. Despite campaigns to increase seasonal influenza vaccine coverage, uptake rates among healthcare workers are generally low, so it is uncertain whether they would participate in voluntary pre-pandemic vaccine programmes. We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of healthcare workers in a large UK teaching hospital during, and six months after, a period of intense media reporting of an H5N1 outbreak at a commercial UK poultry farm. A total of 520 questionnaires were returned, representing 20% of the frontline workforce. More respondents were willing to accept pre-pandemic vaccine during the period of heightened media attention than after (166/262, 63.4% versus 134/258, 51.9%; p=0.009). Following multivariate analysis, factors associated with willingness to accept pre-pandemic vaccine were: receipt of previous seasonal influenza vaccine (odds ratio 5.1, p<0.0001), belief that seasonal vaccine benefits themselves (OR 1.9, p=0.003), pandemic risk is high (OR 35.6, p=0.001) and that healthcare workers are threatened by a pandemic (OR 2.6, p<0.0001). Those who would not accept prepandemic vaccine (220 of 520 respondents, 42.7%) do not perceive pandemic influenza as a serious threat, and have concerns regarding vaccine safety. A majority of healthcare workers are amenable to accepting pre-pandemic vaccination if offered.Improving coverage of seasonal vaccine would increase pre-pandemic vaccine uptake if a proactive priming strategy was implemented.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Willingness of healthcare workers to accept voluntary stockpiled H5N1 vaccine in advance of pandemic activity

Pareek

Clark

Dillon

et al. 2009

Vaccine

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“…1 On the one hand, health care workers (HCWs) have an increased risk for contracting certain vaccinepreventable diseases and on the other hand they can also transmit these diseases to highly vulnerable patients. [2][3][4] Therefore, the appropriate vaccination for HCWs is of particular importance to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, risk perception and attitudes toward vaccination among Austrian health care workers: A cross-sectional study

Harrison

Brand

Forstner

et al. 2016

Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the vaccination coverage of Austrian health care workers (HCWs), their knowledge concerning the current guideline on vaccination for HCWs and their attitudes toward vaccination. A cross-sectional survey was performed by distributing 200 questionnaires among the nursing staff of several medical wards and intensive care units of the Vienna General Hospital. 116 questionnaires were returned for analysis with 77.4% female and 22.6% male participants. While certain vaccines like hepatitis B, tetanus and polio had high vaccination rates of up to 94% and good knowledge concerning the vaccination status, other vaccines like measles (59.8%), mumps (60.7%), rubella (70.5%), influenza (42.1%) or pertussis (58.2%) showed much lower coverage. The main sources of information were nursing school (59.1%), secondary school (46.1%), parents (45.2%) and media in general (45.2%). Only 21.9% of HCWs claimed to know the current guideline on vaccination. Those who knew the guideline were significantly more likely to consider certain vaccines like measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, polio and varicella as recommended (p 0.04). The most important reasons for receiving vaccination were selfprotection (87.5%), prevention of epidemics (54.5%), protection of others (55.4%) and of patients (42.9%). Fear of side effects (67.2%), negative experiences with vaccines (22.4%), the additional doctor's appointment (20.7%) and considering vaccines as an invention by the pharmaceutical industry (19%) were hindering factors for vaccination of HCWs. Considering the essential role of HCWs in preventing diseases, this study noted a remarkable lack of information on vaccination in this profession.

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“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Despite this, HCW uptake of recommended vaccines is low 2,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] , particularly for seasonal influenza and pertussis. 13,[16][17][18][19] In Australia, both pertussis and seasonal influenza vaccines are recommended for all HCWs 17 however providing free influenza vaccine is a policy decision for each hospital or state and is not uniform across Australia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors affecting uptake of recommended immunizations among health care workers in South Australia

Tuckerman

Collins

Marshall

2015

Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics

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Vaccinating healthcare workers against influenza to protect the vulnerable—Is it a good use of healthcare resources?A systematic review of the evidence and an economic evaluation

Cited by 221 publications

References 40 publications

Willingness of healthcare workers to accept voluntary stockpiled H5N1 vaccine in advance of pandemic activity

Willingness of healthcare workers to accept voluntary stockpiled H5N1 vaccine in advance of pandemic activity

Knowledge, risk perception and attitudes toward vaccination among Austrian health care workers: A cross-sectional study

Factors affecting uptake of recommended immunizations among health care workers in South Australia

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