Self-reported influenza vaccination rates among health care workers in a large health system

The national health care worker (HCW) influenza vaccination rate is only 42% despite recommendations that HCWs receive influenza vaccine to prevent influenza among patients.

Following an educational intervention to improve influenza vaccination in 6 facilities in a large health system (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), surveys were mailed to 1200 nonphysician HCWs to determine factors related to influenza vaccination and inform the following year's intervention. HCWs were proportionally sampled with oversampling for minority HCWs, and analyses were weighted to adjust for the clustered nature of the data.

Response rate was 61%. Influenza vaccination rates were 77% overall, 65% for minority HCWs and 80% for white HCWs (P = .02) for ever receiving vaccine; and 57% overall, 45% for minority HCWs and 60% for white HCWs (P = .009) for receiving vaccine in 2005-2006. In logistic regression, belief that getting vaccinated against influenza is wise, physician recommendation, and older age were associated with higher likelihood of vaccination, whereas minority race and good health were associated with lower likelihood of ever receiving influenza vaccine.

To increase influenza vaccination, interventions should address HCWs' most important reasons for getting vaccinated: convenience and protecting themselves from influenza.