Background: In Italy, vaccination against hepatitis B virus infection was strongly recommended for healthcare workers since 1985. Update findings on vaccination coverage are lacking.
Aim: To assess current vaccination coverage against hepatitis B in this job category.
Methods: In 2006, 1,632 healthcare workers randomly selected in 15 Italian public hospitals completed a self-administered precoded questionnaire.
Results: The overall vaccination coverage was 85.3%, a figure higher than the 64.5% observed in 1996. Vaccine coverage showed a significant downtrend (p<0.01) from the Northern (93.1%) to the Southern (77.7%) areas. Logistic regression analysis showed that residence in the North (Odds ratio 4.2; 95% confidence interval 2.6-6.7) and youngest age (Odds ratio 4.5; 95% confidence interval 2.6-7.8), both were independent predictors of vaccine acceptance.
Conclusions: Ten years apart, vaccine coverage has markedly increased, closely paralleling the downtrend in the incidence of acute B hepatitis among healthcare workers in Italy.
Increasing hepatitis B vaccination coverage among healthcare workers in Italy 10 years apart
[Category] B형 간염,
[Article Type] Multicenter Study
[Source] pubmed
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