Exploring factors improving support for vaccinations among Polish primary care physicians

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Vaccinology
• Medical Education

Background:

• Primary care physicians are Poland's most trusted source for immunisation information.
• Understanding factors influencing physician support for vaccinations is crucial for improving healthcare worker education and program organization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore factors influencing vaccination support among physicians in Poland's childhood immunisation programme.
• To inform future educational strategies and programme organization for healthcare workers involved in immunisation.

Main Methods:

• A national cross-sectional telephone survey of 500 physicians in randomly selected primary healthcare practices in June-July 2017.
• Vaccination support assessed using an ordinal scale (0-6) and knowledge of vaccination myths using a scale (0-3).
• Ordered logistic regression used to identify factors independently influencing vaccination support.

Main Results:

• Physicians aged over 60 years, those correctly addressing vaccination myths, and those using scientific knowledge sources demonstrated significantly higher vaccination support.
• Factors such as sex, specialty, adherence to recommendations, conference attendance, use of non-scientific sources, and self-assessed knowledge did not significantly affect support.
• Median vaccination support score was 5 (IQR 2) out of a possible 6.

Conclusions:

• Age, accurate knowledge of vaccination myths, and reliance on scientific information sources are key predictors of physician support for immunisation.
• Recommendations include enhancing the quantity, quality, and accessibility of evidence-based educational materials for primary care physicians involved in childhood immunisation.