Information sources and knowledge on vaccination in a population from southern Italy: The ESCULAPIO project

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the interviewed population from the ESCULAPIO project (N = 632).

	N	%
Gender
F	393	62.2
M	239	37.8
Age
18-54	455	72.0
>=55	177	28.0
Education
Secondary or lower	442	70.5
University	185	29.5
Working in health sector
Yes	71	17.8
No	329	82.3
Marital status
Married/cohabitant	470	75.3
Non married/single	154	24.7
Being parent
Yes	320	50.6
No	312	49.4
Minors in household
Yes	346	54.9
No	284	45.1
No. family members
1-2	136	21.6
3-4	427	67.8
>4	67	10.6
No. smartphone/tablet
0	60	9.8
1	124	20.2
2	193	31.4
>2	237	38.6
No. computer
0	85	13.7
1	316	51.0
2	136	21.9
>2	83	13.4
No. TV
0	22	3.5
1	191	30.7
2	235	37.7
>2	175	28.1
Internet connection at home
Yes	534	87.5
No	76	12.5

Table 2. Information data on vaccination of the interviewed population from the ESCULAPIO project (N = 632).

	N	%
Actual knowledge^a
Yes	277	43.8
No	355	56.2
Perceived knowledge
Yes	268	45.4
No	322	54.6
Main information source^b
General practitioner	251	42.5
Pediatrician	195	33.1
Other health care workers	74	12.5
Mass media	142	24.1
Internet	104	17.6
Friends/relatives/colleagues	62	10.5
Scientific magazines	31	5.3
Ever heard criticisms on vaccines
No	95	15.1
Yes	533	84.9
Heard criticisms from social networks
No	510	80.7
Yes	122	19.3

^a estimated through an index derived from the answers to the following six items: knowledge of the difference between compulsory and recommended vaccinations; knowledge on vaccines (efficacy, safety, adverse effects, protection, in adequate doses); knowledge on diseases (effects, preventability, contagiousness, dangerousness); knowledge of the regional vaccine calendar; knowledge of the national VaccinarSì website; knowledge of the correct strategy to prevent mentioned diseases. More than half of right answers were index of good knowledge.

^b estimated on the basis of a question with multiple answers; the percentage frequency is calculated on the 590 persons that answered the question.

Table 3. Multivariate analysis of the associations between the perceived and actual knowledge and socio-demographic characteristics and information sources of the interviewed population from the ESCULAPIO project (N = 632).

	Perceived knowledge (yes vs no)						Actual knowledge (yes vs no)
	Adjusted OR^*	Lower 95% CI		Upper 95% CI		p-value	Adjusted OR^*		Lower 95% CI		Upper 95% CI		p-value
Age <55 years (vs >=55)^a							1.64		1.04		2.59		0.034
Married/cohabitant (vs non married/single)	1.61	0.83		3.12		0.156	1.35		0.84		2.16		0.216
Families with >2 components (vs 1 or 2)^a							0.92		0.56		1.52		0.747
Presence of minors in household (vs no)	0.42	0.13		1.29		0.130	0.50		0.22		1.17		0.110
Parent (vs non parent)	1.61	0.52		4.98		0.412	2.10		1.94		4.71		0.049
At least one smartphone/tablet (vs none)^b	3.72	0.90		15.49		0.070
Presence of internet connection in household (vs absence)^a							1.43		0.84		2.44		0.185
University education (vs secondary or lower)^b	1.46	0.82		2.62		0.203
Working in health sector (vs no)^b	2.28	1.09		4.77		0.029
GP as reference information source (vs no)^b	0.73	0.41		1.29		0.278
Paediatrician as reference information source (vs no)	1.42	0.75		2.69		0.285	1.63		1.11		2.39		0.012
Scientific magazines as reference information source (vs no)	8.07	1.64		39.66		0.010	3.39		1.51		7.59		0.003
Mass media as reference information source (vs no)^b	0.45	0.22		0.92		0.028
Friends/relatives/colleagues as reference information source (vs no)^b	6.25	2.38		16.44		0.000
Heard criticisms from social networks (vs no)^b	0.59	0.29		1.16		0.127

^a not associated with perceived knowledge in the univariate analysis

^b not associated with actual knowledge in the univariate analysis

* Adjusted for gender

Figure 1. Number of single VaccinarSì website connections by Western and Eastern areas of Sicily and by pre-intervention and post-intervention period in the shopping centers located in the Western area.

Figure 2. Two-year trend of the number of connections to the VaccinarSì website in all Sicilian Region.