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How Public Health Professionals View Mandatory Vaccination in Italy-A Cross-Sectional Survey.

ABSTRACT: In response to the decline in child vaccination coverage and the subsequent occurrence of large vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, in 2017 Italy introduced a new law that made ten vaccines mandatory for children aged 0-16 years. The policy change initiated an ongoing debate among the general public, as well as in the political arena and the scientific community, over this major public health concern. Hence, we conducted a survey aimed at assessing Italian public health professionals' attitudes towards and opinions on mandatory vaccination. A validated online questionnaire was administered to 1350 members of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Among the 1044 responders (response rate 77%), a large majority were in favour of the Italian mandatory vaccination law (91%) and against its repeal (74%). Nevertheless, according to our sample, maintaining a high level of vaccination coverage without the need to mandate would be preferable, and thus efforts to promote vaccine confidence and proactive vaccine uptake are still needed.

SUBMITTER: Pitini E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8228801 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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How Public Health Professionals View Mandatory Vaccination in Italy-A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Pitini Erica E Baccolini Valentina V Rosso Annalisa A Massimi Azzurra A De Vito Corrado C Marzuillo Carolina C Villari Paolo P

Vaccines 20210601 6

In response to the decline in child vaccination coverage and the subsequent occurrence of large vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, in 2017 Italy introduced a new law that made ten vaccines mandatory for children aged 0-16 years. The policy change initiated an ongoing debate among the general public, as well as in the political arena and the scientific community, over this major public health concern. Hence, we conducted a survey aimed at assessing Italian public health professionals' attitud ...[more]

PMID: 34205959

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Project description:BackgroundPublic health genomics is an emerging multidisciplinary approach, which aims to integrate genome-based knowledge in a responsible and effective way into public health. Despite several surveys performed to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and professional behaviors of physicians towards predictive genetic testing, similar surveys have not been carried out for public health practitioners. This study is the first to assess knowledge, attitudes and training needs of public health professionals in the field of predictive genetic testing for chronic diseases.MethodsA self-administered questionnaire was used to carry out a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of Italian public health professionals.ResultsA response rate of 67.4% (797 questionnaires) was achieved. Italian public health professionals have the necessary attitudinal background to contribute to the proper use of predictive genetic testing for chronic diseases, but they need additional training to increase their methodological knowledge. Knowledge significantly increases with exposure to predictive genetic testing during postgraduate training (odds ratio (OR) = 1.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05-2.88), time dedicated to continuing medical education (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.14-2.04) and level of English language knowledge (OR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.07-1.72). Adequate knowledge is the strongest predictor of positive attitudes from a public health perspective (OR = 3.98, 95% CI = 2.44-6.50). Physicians show a lower level of knowledge and more public health attitudes than other public health professionals do. About 80% of public health professionals considered their knowledge inadequate and 86.0% believed that it should be improved through specific postgraduate training courses.ConclusionsSpecific and targeted training initiatives are needed to develop a skilled public health workforce competent in identifying genomic technology that is ready for use in population health and in modeling public health genomic programs and primary care services that need to be developed, implemented and evaluated.

Project description:IntroductionEven though people of the world were eagerly waiting for the hope of vaccine development, vaccine hesitancy is becoming the top concern in both developed and developing countries. However, there is no adequate evidence regarding the attitude and perception of health professionals towards the COVID 19 vaccine in resource-limited settings like Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to assess health professionals' attitudes and perceptions towards COVID 19 vaccine in Western Ethiopia.MethodsAn institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among health care workers found in Nekemte town from April 14-21, 2021. A total of 439 health professionals present on duty during the study period was included in the study. The data were collected by using self-administered questionnaire. Epidata version 3.2 was used for data entry, and STATA version 14 was used for data analysis. The binary logistic regression model was employed to determine factors associated with the attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals was computed and statistical significance was declared at a 5% level (p-value < 0.05).ResultA total of 431 health professionals participated in the study yielding a response rate of 98.1%. The results indicated that 51.28% (95%CI: 45.12%, 57.34%) of health professionals had a favorable attitude towards COVID-19 vaccination. Having good knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine (AOR = 0.38, 95%CI: 0.22, 0.64, P-value <0.001) was negatively associated with unfavorable attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine, whereas age less than 30 years (AOR = 2.14, 95%CI:1.25,3.67, P-value <0.001), working in a private clinic (AOR = 7.77, 95% CI: 2.19, 27.58, P-value <0.001) and health center (AOR = 2.45, 95%CI: 1.01, 5.92, P-value = 0.045) were positively associated with unfavorable attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine.Conclusion and recommendationIn general, the attitude and perception of health care professionals toward the COVID-19 vaccine in the study area were unsatisfactory. Knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine, age of health care workers, and place of work are the factors which affects attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, we recommend the media outlets and concerned bodies to work to develop trust among the public by disseminating accurate and consistent information about the vaccine.

Project description:Background and aimDental Public Health (DPH) education prepares future workforce to promote positive oral health behaviors, prevent oral diseases, and monitor disease distribution and trends taking into considerations best practices, needs and available resources. Scarce information is available about dental education in African countries and Egypt has the greatest number of dental schools in Africa. This study assessed the undergraduate DPH education in Egyptian universities including topics taught, methods of teaching, assessment, and the academics' specialties.MethodsA survey targeted 43 Egyptian universities with Bachelor of Dentistry (BDS) programs identified on the website of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Universities in 2022. Thirty-six deans could be reached by post and/ or email. The survey appraised the school profile and capacity, and methods of teaching and assessment in DPH courses in undergraduate dental programs. The survey also inquired who taught DPH courses and what was covered in the courses. Descriptive statistics were displayed.ResultsWe received 21 (58.3%) responses from 36 deans/ senior officials. Of the universities, 52.4% were private and 47.6% were public. Most participants reported that DPH courses in BDS programs were taught by Pediatric Dentistry academics (71.4%) and DPH academics (57.1%) in 3rd, 4th and 5th years of the 5-year BDS programs. Teaching DPH consisted of face-to-face lectures (100%) and seminars (95.2%) and assessment included written exams with close ended questions (95.2%) and open-ended questions (71.4%). Twenty schools reported teaching the definition of DPH, definition of oral health, and determinants of oral diseases. Nine schools addressed the planning of oral health services and five schools taught about remuneration and payment systems.ConclusionTeaching and assessment of DPH in Egyptian dental schools use traditional methods with limited active engagement of the students. Variations among the schools exist in the DPH topics covered and most instructors were not primarily specialized in DPH. Development of dental/ oral health services calls for more emphasis on DPH education in the curriculum in Egypt.

Dataset Information

How Public Health Professionals View Mandatory Vaccination in Italy-A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Publications

How Public Health Professionals View Mandatory Vaccination in Italy-A Cross-Sectional Survey.

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