Pediatric health care professionals' vaccine knowledge, awareness and attitude: a survey within the Italian Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

Background: Physicians play a key role in driving vaccine acceptance and their recommendations are crucial to address vaccine hesitancy. The aim of the study was to assess knowledge, awareness and attitude of Italian Pediatric Health Care Professionals (pHCPs) on vaccinations.

Methods: An anonymous on-line questionnaire was developed within the Vaccine Committee of Italian Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (SIAIP) and spontaneously completed by 231 Pediatricians and Pediatric Nurses (PN).

Results: An accurate vaccine education was reported by 70% of pediatricians and 13% of PN but 11% of pediatricians versus 26% of PN consult social media instead of scientific sources for their vaccine update. The investigation on the pHCPs attitudes to vaccination in a personal and family setting highlights poor adherence to vaccinations. Only 63% of pediatricians versus 16% of PN (p < 0.0001) annually received the Flu vaccine. In their family setting 93% of pediatricians versus 51% of PN recommended all vaccinations (p < 0.0001). Anti-flu, anti-rotavirus, anti-zoster and anti-pneumococcal vaccines were not regularly recommended by all pHCPs due to doubts of uselessness (55% of pediatricians versus 40% of PN) and preference for "natural immunity" (44% of pediatricians versus 40% of PN).

Conclusions: Our results indicate that pHCPs' attitude and confidence in regards to vaccines remain suboptimal. Current COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid development of vaccines could increase vaccine hesitancy. Due to the documented pHCPs' influence in the parental decision, educational interventions are needed to improve their level of knowledge and counselling skills in order to address parental vaccine hesitancy and to maintain continuity of immunization services.