Results of the first national survey on vaccines co-administration knowledge and beliefs carried out among Italian health assistants
 
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1
Register Commission Health Assistants, Rome, Italy
 
2
Prevention Health Professions, Local Health Unit 3 of Genova, Genova, Italy
 
3
Health Assistance University of Padova, Padova, Italy
 
4
Prevention Health Professions, Local Health Unit Brianza, Desio, Italy
 
5
Register Commission Health Assistants, Italy
 
6
Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquilla, L'Aquila, Italy
 
7
National Register Commission Health Assistants, Bari, Italy
 
 
Publication date: 2023-04-27
 
 
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A2055
 
ABSTRACT
Background/Objective: Vaccination coverage in Italy for pediatric mandatory vaccinations is in line with the target of 95%, while recommended vaccinations rotavirus and meningococcus B are consistently below the same target. To face this challenge, vaccine co-administrations (co-admin) is considered a major tool to optimize the crowdy pediatric vaccination schedule even though it can be perceived as potentially harmful. Health Assistant (HA) engagement in co-admin is instrumental to allow calendars evolution while keeping trust in vaccination and increase coverage. The aim of the project is to document the current knowledge and beliefs on co-admin in a sample of HA. Methods: A questionnaire including 11 questions was structured and released online. Questions were divided in conceptual sections: demographics, beliefs and knowledge on co-admin, expectations on medical education format. HA signed up to the first HA national congress were invited to take part to the survey. Results: Within October and November 2022, 255 questionnaires were filled in, generating a 90% confidence level with a 5% error margin of the survey results. Respondents were well distributed Countrywide. Co-admin was considered “a very useful tool to optimize calendars” in 67.9% questionnaire, while 25.5% gave co-admin the same relevance of other practices. Co-admin were considered favorable for Public Health and/or for vaccines and caregivers in more than 57% of responses while 18.5% were not in favor. Data on the co-admin immunogenicity/effectiveness (68.3%), safety profile/contraindication (75.3%) and presence in the vaccine label (80.2%) were considered the more relevant topics. No specific preferences on CME format came out. Conclusions: The results of first survey carried out in Italy on co-admin among HA suggest an overall positive insight, although not fully endorsed by all respondents. Educational program on the value of co-admin, focusing on safety and effectiveness are warranted to increase the HA engagement.
 
CITATIONS (1):
1.
Available evidence on the co-administration of the four-component meningococcal B vaccine (4CMenB) with three vaccines at the same visit among pediatric individuals
Paolo Bonanni, Stefano Castagna, Giovanni Gabutti, Sandro Giuffrida, Federico Marchetti, Rocco Russo, Rosa Prato, Francesco Vitale
Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
 
ISSN:2654-1459
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