Knowledge and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of influenza vaccination in the Qassim region, Saudi Arabia (2019-2020)

Figures & data

Table 1. Healthcare workers’ perceptions of the influenza vaccination according to their general characteristics

Crosstab
n = 327		Perceptions		P-value
		Negative	Positive
Age	18–30	16	124	.971
	31–45	12	128
	46–60	7	33
	Over 60	0	7
Sex	Male	16	123	.686
	Female	19	169
Nationality	Saudi	24	132	.009
	Non-Saudi	11	160
Educational level	Graduated	27	199	.321
	Master’s degree	4	58
	Doctorate	4	28
	Post doctorate	0	7
Profession	Physician	6	91	.076
	Pharmacist	7	81
	Nurse	10	80
	Radiology specialists and technicians	6	30
	*Others	2	10

*Others: nutritionists, lab technicians

Table 2. Healthcare workers’ knowledge about the influenza vaccine

Crosstab
Count n = 327
		Knowledge		P-value
		Poor Knowledge	Good Knowledge
Age	18–30	56	84	.208
	31–45	62	78
	46–60	9	31
	Over 60	1	6
Sex	Male	58	81	.412
	Female	70	118
Nationality	Saudi	75	81	.002
	Non-Saudi	53	118
Educational Level	Graduated	97 18 11 2	129 44 21 5	.047
	Master’s degree
	Doctorate
	Post doctorate
Specialty	General practice	20	31	.511
	Pediatrics	2	15
	Family medicine	4	4
	Internal Medicine	8	12
	OB/GYN	3	8
	Pharmacy	28	60
	*Others	63	69

*Others: nutritionists, lab technicians

Table 3. Participants’ perceptions of the influenza vaccination

Perception	Strongly Agree	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
Afraid of needles	6.4% (21)	15% (50)	26% (85)	24.2% (79)	28.1% (92)
Concern about the injection procedure	6.4% (21)	20.2% (66)	22.3% (73)	26.6% (87)	24.5% (80)
Concern about complications of the injected vaccine	6.1% (20)	28.4% (93)	21.4% (70)	27.2% (89)	16.8% (55)
Belief that influenza is not serious	7.3% (24)	20.2% (66)	17.7% (58)	34.9% (114)	19.9% (65)
Belief that vaccine can cause influenza	4.0% (13)	19.0% (62)	21.7% (71)	34.6% (113)	20.8% (68)
Belief that getting influenza is safer than getting vaccinated	7.0% (23)	16.8% (55)	19.6% (64)	31.2% (102)	25.4% (83)
Belief that herbals are better than the vaccine	9.5% (31)	18.7% (61)	25.1% (82)	26.9% (88)	19.9% (65)
Belief that vaccines are not effective	5.2% (17)	9.8% (32)	19.9% (65)	41.9% (137)	23.2% (76)

Table 4. Logistic regression analysis results showing that healthcare professionals who had never previously received the influenza vaccination were more likely to have negative perceptions

Parameter Estimates
Perceptions^a		B	Std. Error	Wald	df	Sig.	Exp(B)	95% Confidence Interval for Exp(B)
								Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Negative Perceptions	Intercept	−4.245	1.092	15.115	1	.000
	Male	.424	.476	.795	1	.373	1.528	.601	3.884
	Female	0^b	.	.	0	.	.	.	.
	Saudi	.971	.442	4.833	1	.028	2.641	1.111	6.278
	Non-Saudi	0^b	.	.	0	.	.	.	.
	Physician	−.221	.703	.099	1	.753	.802	.202	3.182
	Pharmacist	.137	.618	.049	1	.824	1.147	.342	3.851
	Nurse	.670	.764	.771	1	.380	1.955	.438	8.732
	Others	.545	.979	.310	1	.577	1.725	.253	11.743
	Laboratory technician	0^b	.	.	0	.	.	.	.
	Never received the vaccine	1.995	.791	6.360	1	.012	7.354	1.560	34.673
	Received only once	1.087	.906	1.439	1	.230	2.965	.502	17.508
	Received only twice	1.424	.855	2.774	1	.096	4.155	.777	22.208
	Received every season	.791	.808	.957	1	.328	2.206	.452	10.758
	Received several times but not every season	0^b	.	.	0	.	.	.	.

^aThe reference category is positive perceptions

^bThis parameter is set to zero because it is redundant