Study highlights these chief vaccine motivators & barriers
Personal reasons stand out
Canadian researchers found a variety of key motivators and barriers to health care workers becoming vaccinated to prevent seasonal or pandemic influenza.
The following motivators and barriers applied to both the seasonal flu vaccine and the pandemic (H1N1) flu vaccine:
Motivators:
• Personal reasons: HCWs wanted to prevent influenza illness and prevent health complications related to influenza infection;
• Family/loved ones: HCWs wanted to prevent influenza illness in their family members;
• Patients: They wanted to prevent flu illness in patients and were concerned about patients with health issues that increased their risk of influenza-related health complications;
• HCW status: For some, their HCW status necessitates flu vaccination, and this could relate to their having an increased risk of infection;
• Community: HCW wanted to prevent infection spread to others.1
Barriers:
• Personal: Some HCWs didn’t feel vaccination was important or necessary for themselves because of their good health, and some had experienced side effects or did not believe in vaccines;
• Vaccine: Some HCWs had vaccine safety, efficacy, or effectiveness concerns, and some worried about allergies and side effects, including that vaccination could lead to influenza sickness.1
While the above motivators and barriers were cited for both vaccines, the following were specific to only the pandemic flu vaccine:
Motivators:
• HCWs were fearful of infection and infection-related death;
• They were concerned about the financial pressures of missing work;
• They were encouraged by other staff members to become vaccinated; and
• The vaccine was conveniently available, and the H1N1 flu was more severe and different from the seasonal flu.1
Barriers:
• There was limited information specific to the H1N1 vaccine, and HCWs worried about accelerated vaccine development; and
• HCWs worried that H1N1 was misrepresented and miscommunicated by external media and public health sources.1
- Prematunge C, Corace K, McCarthy A, et al. A comparison of healthcare worker motivators for seasonal vs. pandemic influenza uptake: A qualitative analysis. Abstract 402. Poster presented at ID Week 2013, San Francisco, CA. Oct. 2-6, 2013 .
