Creencias, actitudes e influencia de los medios de comunicación en trabajadores sanitarios españoles durante la gripe pandémica A (H1N1) 2009

Abstract

IntroductionThe aim of this article is to report, from their own perspective, the attitudes and believes towards vaccination, with special emphasis on the influence of sources of information to make the decision to get vaccinated, of health care workers (HCWs), considered as a specific risk group for immunization strategy against A (H1N1) influenza. MethodsCross-sectional observational study focused on active health workers in the province of Alicante. Made by face to face questionnaires to a stratified random sample based on occupational categories in hospitals and health care centres. ResultsThe sources of information differ between subgroups; physicians used journals and/or conferences, nurses obtained information through the Ministry of Health and other nurses, and the remaining workers opted for television and/or the family physician. Of the three studied groups, physicians felt minor concern about the influenza A (H1N1) pandemic (59.4%), had the most confidence in the vaccine (42.3%), were the ones who recommended the vaccine the most (44.4%), who best followed the recommendations to avoid infection (93%), and were the most vaccinated (18.3%). Around three-quarters (75.5%) of the HCWs assessed the provided information as fair, poor or very poor. All HCWs admitted that a social alarm was created. DiscussionThe success of future immunization campaigns against influenza in HCWs could increase if information activities were designed to focus on each subgroup of HCWs, by adapting the strategy and improving the quality of information.