Attitudes of healthcare workers in U.S. hospitals regarding smallpox vaccination

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Healthcare workers' characteristics and self-reported willingness to accept smallpox immunization

	Total		By expressed willingness to be immunized
			Yes/probably		Probably not/no/ don't know
	n	%	n	%	n	%	p-value*
All	1165	100 %	708	61%	450	39%
Perceived risk of attack							<0.0001
High/intermediate	610	53%	422	70%	184	30%
Low/next to zero	400	35%	185	47%	212	53%
Can't guess	144	12%	95	66%	49	34%
Region							0.03
Northeast (9 hospitals)	503	43%	278	56%	222	44%
Mid-Atlantic & Southeast (8 hospitals)	317	27%	205	65%	111	35%
Midwest & West (4 hospitals)	345	30%	225	66%	117	34%
Main work area							0.11
ED or ED consult	558	48%	349	63%	208	37%
ICU (adult or pediatric) or consult	434	37%	248	57%	184	43%
Other/none specified	173	15%	111	66%	58	34%
Profession							0.86
Physician	351	30%	210	61%	137	39%
Non-physician clinician	642	55%	392	61%	248	39%
Other/none specified	172	15%	106	62%	65	38%
Age							0.41
Up to 29	277	24%	170	62%	106	38%
30–39	356	31%	206	58%	147	42%
40–49	315	27%	191	61%	121	39%
50 or over	207	18%	135	65%	72	35%
Gender							<0.0001
Male	408	35%	257	63%	148	37%
Female	743	65%	440	60%	299	40%
Children < 18 at home?**							<0.0001**
Yes	461	41%	281	61%	177	39%
No	676	59%	413	61%	259	39%
Ever vaccinated against smallpox							0.07
Yes	606	52%	384	64%	217	36%
No	418	36%	241	58%	175	42%
Not sure	140	12%	82	59%	58	41%
How well informed about risks and benefits of smallpox vaccination							0.0002
Very well	138	12%	98	72%	39	28%
Fairly well	474	41%	304	65%	167	35%
Not well	456	39%	255	56%	198	44%
Not at all	94	8%	50	53%	44	47%
How carefully read accompanying smallpox vaccine information sheet**							<0.0001**
Read carefully	534	47%	326	62%	204	38%
Read some parts	182	16%	111	62%	69	38%
Skimmed quickly	234	21%	150	64%	84	36%
Didn't read it	189	17%	106	56%	83	44%

NB: Where subtotals do not add to 1,165, this is due to missing answers on the questionnaire. * Adjusted for clustering within hospital and variation in the number of responses per hospital. ** Two variables, children at home and reading the VIS, were statistically significant in the bivariate analysis but were excluded from the multivariate model. Hospital-specific odds ratios for favoring vaccination with children at home compared to without children at home ranged from 0.22 to 5.5, but only one of the 21 was statistically significant (OR 1.14, p=.03). Similarly, on hospital-specific analysis, odds ratios for the various levels of reading the VIS compared to not reading it at all varied from 0.09 (for reading parts of it) to 5.3 (for reading it carefully) and none were statistically significant. We concluded that there was little evidence of a meaningful association and removed both variables from the final multivariate model.

ISSN: 1471-2458