title: Attitudes towards mandatory vaccination and vaccination coverage against vaccine-preventable diseases among health-care workers in tertiary-care hospitals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the attitudes about mandatory vaccination and vaccination coverage against vaccine-preventable diseases among health-care workers (HCWs) working in tertiary-care hospitals in Greece.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was distributed to HCWs working in four tertiary-care hospitals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 505 HCWs participated in the survey. Self-reported completed vaccination rates were 18.8% against measles, 18.8% against mumps, 22.2% against rubella, 1.9% against varicella, 3.6% against hepatitis A, 56.5% against hepatitis B, and 35.7% against tetanus-diphtheria. Younger age groups had higher completed vaccination rates against measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B compared with older HCWs (p-value < 0.001). Self-reported susceptibility rates were 12.7% for measles, 18.9% for mumps, 15.8% for rubella, 15.2% for varicella, 89.9% for hepatitis A, 34.2% for hepatitis B, and 64.3% for tetanus-diphtheria. Sixty three percent of 451 HCWs who answered this question supported mandatory vaccinations for HCWs, with significant differences per target disease. Physicians more frequently supported a mandatory vaccination policy compared to nurses and other professions (72.1% versus 61.9% and 54.2%, respectively; p-value = 0.028).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Approximately two thirds of HCWs working in tertiary-care hospitals in Greece support mandatory vaccinations for HCWs, however suboptimal vaccination rates against vaccine-preventable diseases were recorded.
authors.affiliation: Department for Interventions in Health-Care Facilities, Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 3-5 Agrafon Street, Athens, Greece. helen-maltezou@ath.forthnet.gr
authors.forename: Helena C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Maltezou
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gargalianos
authors.forename: Pavlos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nikolaidis
authors.forename: Panos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Katerelos
authors.forename: Natasa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tedoma
authors.forename: Efstratios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maltezos
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lazanas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D032541:Mass Vaccination / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult