Attitudes of Healthcare Personnel towards Vaccinations before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Caterina Ledda, Claudio Costantino, Mario Cuccia, Helena C. Maltezou and Venerando Rapisarda
Additional contact information
Caterina Ledda: Occupational Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 87 Edificio B Piano 0, 95123 Catania, Italy
Claudio Costantino: Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Infant Care, Internal Medicine and Excellence Specialties, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Mario Cuccia: Epidemiology and Prevention Unit, Provincial Health Authority of Catania, Via Tevere, San Gregorio di Catania, 95027 Catania, Italy
Helena C. Maltezou: Directorate of Research, Studies and Documentation, National Public Health Organization, 3-5 Agrafon Street, 11523 Athens, Greece
Venerando Rapisarda: Occupational Medicine, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia, 87 Edificio B Piano 0, 95123 Catania, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: Vaccines constitute highly effective tools for controlling and eliminating vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) and are assessed to avert between two to three million deaths per year globally. Healthcare personnel (HCP) constitute a priority group for several vaccinations. However, studies indicate significant rates of vaccine hesitancy among them and, therefore, of acceptance of vaccination recommendations. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a university hospital in Southern Italy to assess the knowledge and attitudes of HCP about VPDs before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, estimate their intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and search for determinants that may influence their choice. A self-administered questionnaire was used. HCP improved their knowledge about VPDs and were more favorable to vaccinations in September–December 2020 compared to January–December 2019. Overall, 75% of respondents would get a COVID-19 vaccine. Our findings indicate a potential role of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on Italian HCP’s knowledge and attitudes towards vaccines.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; healthcare personnel; occupational risk; vaccination; knowledge; attitudes; Italy; vaccine hesitancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2703/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2703/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:5:p:2703-:d:512581

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().