TY  - JOUR
TI  - Seasonal Influenza Vaccination on Children During COVID-19 Pandemic: Addressing Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Pediatricians and Pediatric Nurses
AB  - Objective: Influenza is a viral infection that causes pandemics just like the COVID-19 infection and has similar clinical features, making differen- tial diagnosis difficult. Although influenza epidemics can be prevented by vaccination, hesitancy about vaccination is the biggest obstacle to preventing influenza epidemics. This study aimed to evaluate pediatri- cians’ and nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding season- al influenza vaccination in children during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate the underlying causes of vaccine hesitancy against influenza vaccination. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted be - tween February and April 2021. The study sampling consisted 76 pedi- atricians and 63 pediatric nurses who volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected through survey questionnaires prepared by the researchers. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used for data analysis. Results: In this sample, 52.6% of the pediatricians and 23.8% of the nurs- es believed that children should be vaccinated against influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although 73.7% of the pediatricians and 33.3% of the pediatric nurses advised pediatric patients to get vaccinated against influenza, they did not get their children vaccinated. The hesitan- cy reasons included worrying about their children getting infected with COVID-19 in healthcare institutions, distrust in the efficacy of the influen- za vaccine, worrying about the possible side effects, influenza vaccines not being included in the national vaccination program, believing that influenza is not a high-risk disease, lack of information about the vaccine, thinking that that influenza vaccine contains harmful substances, and not having time because of busy work schedule. Conclusion: In-service training on influenza vaccination should be orga- nized among pediatricians and nurses to eliminate vaccine-related hes- itations. Policy recommendations for the inclusion of influenza vaccines in the national vaccination program are important in terms of preventing influenza-related diseases in children and vaccine hesitations seen by healthcare professionals.
AU  - Tubaş, Filiz
AU  - tatar, sena berra
AU  - şener taplak, ayşe
DO  - 10.5578/ced.20229753
PY  - 2022
JO  - Çocuk Enfeksiyon Dergisi
VL  - 16
IS  - 3
SN  - 1307-1068
SP  - 136
EP  - 144
DB  - TRDizin
UR  - http://search/yayin/detay/1167027
ER  -