title: Prevalence of influenza vaccination among nurses and ancillary workers in Italy: systematic review and meta analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Italian Ministry of Health, recommends vaccination for seasonal influenza to all healthcare workers (HCW), particularly to nurses who have an important interaction with patients. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic review in order to estimate the pooled prevalence of influenza vaccinations among nurses and ancillary workers in Italy and analyse the enhancing and hindering factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The review was performed using 15 articles, six containing the prevalence of vaccination for nurses and ancillary workers, while the others qualitative analysis. In all the selected articles the score calculation has been carried out by using a protocol for observational studies. The nurses and ancillary workers pooled proportion of influenza vaccination was respectively 13.47% (95%CI 9.58-17.90%) and 12.52% (95%CI 9.97-15.31%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Italian mean of influenza vaccination prevalence appear low if compared to other European countries, ranging from 15% to 29% in Countries such as UK, Germany, France. This situation of weakness should be seen as an opportunity to improve the vaccination rate for seasonal influenza significantly This should be done by intervening on the category which affirms caring less. In fact, this category has a priority to receive vaccination, due to their numbers and closer contact to patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Research was conducted using medical database Scopus, PubMed, the search engine Google Scholar and ISI web of knowledge, and was concluded February 1st 2011.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy. giuseppe.latorre@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Torre
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mannocci
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ursillo
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bontempi
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Firenze
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Panico
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sferrazza
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ronga
authors.forename: Adele
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Anna
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Amodio
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boccia
mesh_terms: D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D007558:Italy; D008503:Medical Staff; D009726:Nurses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014611:Vaccination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines