Sonia Habib, MD, MPH, Shmuel Rishpon, MD, MPH and Lisa Rubin, MD, MPH
Objective: To determine the vaccination rates among healthcare workers in the Haifa subdistrict and to assess factors associated with vaccination uptake among them.
Methods: The study was conducted in the three general hospitals in Haifa City, and in five nursing homes in the Haifa subdistrict. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 1,014 employees of whom 71% were females, 34% were nurses, 27% were physicians and 28% were non-professional workers.
Results: The crude response rate was 66%. Response rates were higher in females (71%) than in males (49%), in nurses (70%) than in physicians (43%), and in staff of internal and pediatric departments than in workers of surgery departments and emergency rooms. The overall vaccination rate among the respondents was 11%, which was higher among males (15%) than among females (10%). No significant relationship between vaccination rate and age, occupation and department was found. The vaccination rate among employees with chronic illness was very low (7%). Influenza vaccine was actively recommended to 29% of the employees. The main reasons for non-compliance were low awareness of the severity of the disease and of the vaccine's efficacy and safety, and unavailability of the vaccine within the workplace.
Conclusions: Educational efforts and offering the vaccine at the workplace at no cost are the most important measures for raising influenza vaccination rates.
Zvi H. Abramson, MD, MPH and Vered Cohen-Naor, MD
Background: Influenza is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. While immunization has been shown to reduce these complications, many of the elderly are not immunized.
Objective: To identify correlates for under-utilization of influenza immunization among the elderly.
Methods: A telephone survey was conducted among a random sample of patients aged 65 and over registered at a Jerusalem primary care community clinic. The 626 questionnaires were analyzed for associations of immunization receipt for the latest influenza season. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify independent correlates. Respondents were also asked what factors had influenced their decision about immunization.
Results: The most frequently reported influence on getting immunized was a physician's recommendation. Immunization was independently associated with the identity of the primary care physician (P0.0001) and with having visited the physician during the previous 3 months (P=0.0006). Immunization was more likely among persons who believed that it provides complete protection from influenza (P0.0001) and less likely among those who believed immunization can cause influenza (P0.0001). Higher immunization rates were also associated with being married (P=0.0031).
Conclusion: Through their influence on patient knowledge and the effect of their recommendation, primary care physicians play a pivotal role in determining immunization rates. Physicians should routinely discuss the effects of immunization and recommend it to the elderly.
Manfred S. Green, MD, PhD
Rita Rachmani, MD, Zohar Levi, MD, Rika Zissin, MD, Merav Lidar, MD and Mordechai Ravid, MD, FACP
Rosalie Ber, MD, DSc, Gershon B. Grunfeld, PhD and Gideon Alroy, MD
The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion established an Ethics in Medicine Forum in March 1993. The main objective of the forum was to increase awareness of the philosophical principles of ethics in medicine, as defined and developed in the western world during the last three decades. The multidisciplinary forum meets once a month during the academic year. Our 7 years experience is documented. Of the 45 meetings, 30 were clinically “oriented and of these more than half were based on cases. Only 15 meetings were purely theoretical. Our principal a assumption was that any and every topic could be discussed, including those covered by the law We explored a how well western philosophical principles and rules fit the Israeli picture. Many of the forum discussions related to 0 the draft of the Patient’s Bill of Rights which came into effect on 12 May 1996. The role of the ‘legal’ hospital ethics committees was compared to that of the “advisory” ethics committees whose members constituted a large share of our forum. The multicultural Israeli population and the practice of medicine therein raised many lively discussions. The principle of autonomy in the ultra-orthodox and in the family setting was a highly controversial issue. The forum served as a workshop for examining traditional medical ethical principles, which we strongly feel needs to he amended in light of the 1996 Patient’s Bill of Rights. From our 7 years experience with an Ethics in Medicine Forum we recommend that medical ethical deliberations focus on genuine medical cases.