Vaccine Hesitancy in Women of Childbearing Age and Occupational Physicians: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study (Italy, 2022)

Italian occupational physicians (OPs) are instrumental in promoting vaccination practice in occupational settings, and this study aims to characterize their attitudes, knowledge, and practices (collectively, KAP) towards immunization practice in women of childbearing age. A convenience sample of 120 OPs (50.8% males, mean age of 48.2 +/- 5.9 years old) completed a structured online questionnaire (potential recipients: 2034; response rate: 5.9%) assessing their understanding of official recommendations, their general knowledge of vaccine practice, their attitudes towards vaccines, and their risk perception about vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. The sampled OPs exhibited a good understanding of official recommendations, and they were largely favorable towards vaccination of pregnant women. Knowledge status was relatively good (potential range 0 to 100%, average score 22 74.5% +/- 18.2), while risk perception towards sampled disorders was heterogenous: the greatest was the one for SARS-CoV-2 (52.7% +/- 32.9), followed by seasonal influenza (45.3% +/- 31.6), and pertussis (37.8% 24 +/- 28.2). The main predictors for promoting vaccination were higher knowledge about seasonal influenza vaccine (SIV; adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] 102.2, 95% Confidence Interval [95%CI] 9.68-1080.26), tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap; aOR 12.34, 95%CI 2.62; 58.22) 27 and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (aOR 14.76, 95%CI 2.74-79.69). A better attitude towards SIV was positively associated with previous vaccination of the respondent (aOR 4.90, 95%CI 1.19-20.14), while higher risk perception towards SIV was characterized as a negative predictor (aOR 0.04, 95%CI 0.01-0.35), as was working as an OP in healthcare facilities (aOR 0.03, 95%CI 0.01-0.43). Tdap was positively associated with male gender of respondents (aOR 10.22, 95%CI 2.60 to 40.24) and higher risk perception about pertussis (aOR 10.38, 95%CI 1.47 to 73.47). Overall, our data suggest that improving the understanding of OPs about the health burden of frequently encountered pathogens could be instrumental in increasing their involvement in the promotion of vaccine practice. Because of the low rate of response to our survey, our conclusions remain tentative.