Acceptance of Seasonal Influenza Vaccination by Healthcare Workers in Primary Health Care Workers Centers- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Seasonal influenza disturbs work fluency and jeopardizes patients’ safety. Influenza vaccination uptake among Healthcare Workers (HCWs) is suboptimal all over the globe. This study aimed to study the influenza vaccination acceptance and uptake among HCWs in Wazarat Health Care Center (WHC) at Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Method: Two hundred out of randomly selected 240 HCWs working at WHC-PSMMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were surveyed between May and June 2017. A validated 25-items self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The collected data included sociodemographic, work and health related data, and beliefs towards influenza and its vaccine. Scoring system was used for transformed categorical data. The mean scores, median and Interquartile (IQR) were estimated and compared. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to study the associations of the influenza vaccine uptake with those covariates. IBM® SPSS®16 Statistics software was used for data analysis. Ethical aspects including confidentiality, informed consent, and approval were carefully considered. Results: With a response rate of 83% to the survey, only 41% of the participants found have received the 2016 influenza vaccine. On univariate analysis gender, nationality, occupation, level of education, work nature, work experience, past infection, and previous vaccination were associated with vaccination uptake. The vaccinated HCWs were more likely to perceive themself susceptible to influenza and its complications and to perceive the influenza vaccine as safe and effective compared to unvaccinated HCWs. On Multivariate analysis, HCWs perceived influenza vaccine as beneficial, HCWs doing clinical works and non-Saudi HCWs were (Odd Ratio (OR):1.25 (95% Confidence Interval (CI); 1.10, 1.42) P=0.001), (OR: 2.83 (95% CI; 1.10, 7.28) P=0.03), and (OR: 3.81(95% CI; 1.24, 11.67) P=0.03) times more likely to vaccinate against influenza, respectively. Conclusion: Despite rigorous recommendation influenza vaccination uptake was suboptimal. Mandatory influenza vaccination policy may need to be adopted to achieve a vaccination coverage above 80% as recommended by the world health organization (WHO). This could be combined with interventions that address the associated factors to guarantee the maintenance of the desirable acceptance level and minimize the declination rate. Family Medicine and Primary Care: Open Access Alrashdi M, et al. J Family Med Prim Care Open Acc 6: 187. www.doi.org/10.29011/2688-7460.100087 www.gavinpublishers.com