Objective: To study the attitudes among general practitioners towards pneumococcal vaccination for middle-aged (50-64) and elderly population (over 65) in Hong Kong and the factors affecting their decision to advise pneumococcal vaccination for those age groups.
Design: Cross-sectional study of general practitioners in private practice in Hong Kong.
Participants: Members of Hong Kong Medical Association delivering general practice services in private sector.
Measuring Tool: Self-administered questionnaire.
Main Outcome Measures: Intention to recommend pneumococcal vaccination, barriers against pneumococcal vaccination.
Results: 53.4% of the respondents would actively recommend pneumococcal vaccination to elderly patients but only 18.8% would recommend for middle-aged patients. Consultation not related to pneumococcal vaccine was the main reason for not recommending pneumococcal vaccine (43.6%). Rarity of pneumonia in their daily practice was another reason with 68.4% of respondents attending five or less patients with pneumonia each year. In multivariate analysis, factors such as respondents would get vaccination when reaching age 50 (ORm 10.1), and attending 6 pneumonia cases or more per year (ORm 2.28) were found to be associated with increasing likelihood for recommending vaccination to the middle-aged. While concerns of marketing a product (ORm 0.41), consultation not related to vaccination (ORm 0.45) and limited time (ORm 0.38) were factors that reduced the likelihood.
Conclusion: Public policy is needed to increase the awareness of impact of pneumococcal pneumonia and the availability of preventive measures.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3818320 | PMC |
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078210 | PLOS |
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