Determinants de la non-acceptation du vaccin anti-grippal parmi le personnel des cliniques Universiatires St-Luc

For the recent years, the influenza vaccination was less than 15% among the employees of the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, despite recommendations by the hospital direction and free availability of this immunization. The main aim of this survey was to identify predictors of the non-vaccination among the 4109 employees of our hospital during the 1995-1996 influenza season. One third of the employees returned the survey, of whom 487 (32%) received the influenza vaccine. The vaccination rate was low among young and female subjects, and surprisingly not higher among employees with frequent contacts with patients. A greater motivation for prevention and a better knowledge regarding the influenza virus and its vaccine were both associated with a higher vaccination rate. Specifically, the vaccination rate was much lower in the many employees who considered that prevention is not important, the influenza vaccine is not efficacious or not useful, or who did not obtain this vaccine during the previous year. A better understanding of the determinants of the non-acceptation of influenza vaccine, on both levels of behaviour and knowledge, should help adapt the recommendations and the information provided to the employees in order to increase the hospital vaccination rate, and thereby decrease the risk of influenza transmission to the patients.