Vaccination against influenza-analysis of attitudes of health care personnel in latvia

Introduction: An important aspect of successful implementation of the program of vaccination against influenza is the attitude of health care personnel towards vaccination. The main objective of this research is to investigate attitudes of health care personnel in Latvia towards vaccination against influenza. Methods: Participants were 1113 representatives of health care staff. The Attitude Towards Vaccination Against Influenza Questionnaire developed by authors was used. Results: It was found that 53.1% of health care workers support that patients during the influenza outbreak should get vaccinated against influenza, 59.5% support that medical staff as a risk group should get vaccinated against influenza. Thirteen percent of health care workers get vaccinated regularly, 14.4% would get vaccinated if the vaccine would be available with discount, 41.6% would get vaccinated if the vaccine would be free of charge. Most of health care workers know of influenza medications, 46.9% used them. Also they consider that it would be useful to have reserves of influenza medications in a hospital so that he/ she could start to take medications immediatly in the symptoms appear. The cost of the vaccine seems to be the main barrier to vaccination. Conclusions: Based on the results of cluster analysis a possible typology of health care workers can be offered: “Acting in a case of a disease”, “Positive to prevention free of charge for medical staff & Not experts in etiological influenza medications”, “Supporting prevention of patients and medical staff against influenza & Experts in etiological influenza medications”, and “Nihilists”.