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Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility

In Romania, influenza vaccination of healthcare professionals is recommended, but not mandatory. This study aims to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of medical students and resident physicians—the youngest healthcare professionals—towards influenza immunization, focusing on the barriers and f...

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Autores principales: Bălan, Ana, Ruță, Simona Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10610909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37896954
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11101551
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author Bălan, Ana
Ruță, Simona Maria
author_facet Bălan, Ana
Ruță, Simona Maria
author_sort Bălan, Ana
collection PubMed
description In Romania, influenza vaccination of healthcare professionals is recommended, but not mandatory. This study aims to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of medical students and resident physicians—the youngest healthcare professionals—towards influenza immunization, focusing on the barriers and facilitators, as well as on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. An anonymous online survey was conducted during the 2021/2022 influenza season, with responses from332 medical students and resident physicians. The majority (73.5%) were not vaccinated against influenza (68% of the students, 52.3% of the residents), although they were vaccinated against COVID-19 (94% students, 94.8% resident physicians) and believed that the pandemic positively influenced their attitude towards influenza vaccination. Vaccine accessibility (p < 0.001) and the necessity to pay for vaccination (p < 0.001) were identified as barriers in both groups, while lack of recommendation from a medical professional/teacher was significant only for students (p < 0.001). Forgetfulness and lack of prioritizations were the most cited reasons for not being vaccinated. These barriers could be diminished through proactive recommendation and simplification of the vaccination process, with accessible vaccination centers and implementation of vaccine reimbursement policies. Improved vaccination rates in young medical professionals are of the utmost importance both in their professional settings and as a model for the general population.
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spelling pubmed-106109092023-10-28 Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility Bălan, Ana Ruță, Simona Maria Vaccines (Basel) Article In Romania, influenza vaccination of healthcare professionals is recommended, but not mandatory. This study aims to investigate the attitudes and behaviors of medical students and resident physicians—the youngest healthcare professionals—towards influenza immunization, focusing on the barriers and facilitators, as well as on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. An anonymous online survey was conducted during the 2021/2022 influenza season, with responses from332 medical students and resident physicians. The majority (73.5%) were not vaccinated against influenza (68% of the students, 52.3% of the residents), although they were vaccinated against COVID-19 (94% students, 94.8% resident physicians) and believed that the pandemic positively influenced their attitude towards influenza vaccination. Vaccine accessibility (p < 0.001) and the necessity to pay for vaccination (p < 0.001) were identified as barriers in both groups, while lack of recommendation from a medical professional/teacher was significant only for students (p < 0.001). Forgetfulness and lack of prioritizations were the most cited reasons for not being vaccinated. These barriers could be diminished through proactive recommendation and simplification of the vaccination process, with accessible vaccination centers and implementation of vaccine reimbursement policies. Improved vaccination rates in young medical professionals are of the utmost importance both in their professional settings and as a model for the general population. MDPI 2023-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10610909/ /pubmed/37896954 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11101551 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bălan, Ana
Ruță, Simona Maria
Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility
title Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility
title_full Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility
title_fullStr Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility
title_full_unstemmed Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility
title_short Influenza Vaccination of Romanian Medical Students and Resident Physicians—A Matter of Accessibility
title_sort influenza vaccination of romanian medical students and resident physicians—a matter of accessibility
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10610909/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37896954
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11101551
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