Awareness of vaccination status and its predictors among working people in Switzerland

BACKGROUND: Adult vaccination status may be difficult to obtain, often requiring providers to rely on individual patient recall. To determine vaccination status awareness and the sociodemographic predictors of awareness for tetanus, hepatitis A and B, tick born encephalitis (TBE) and influenza vaccination. METHODS: Multivariate analyses were used to evaluate a questionnaire survey of 10 321 employees (4070 women and 6251 men aged 15–72 years) of two companies in Switzerland. RESULTS: Among 10 321 respondents, 75.5% reported knowing their tetanus vaccination status, 64.1% hepatitis A, 61.1% hepatitis B, 64.3% TBE and 71.9% influenza. Between 1 in 4 and 1 in 3 employees were not aware of their vaccination status. Differences in awareness for the five vaccinations considered correlated with gender and language. These differences persisted in multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION: Women employees, German-speaking employees and employees who paid more attention to their diet were more often aware of their vaccination status. A more reliable and readily accessible data source for vaccination status is needed in order to capitalize on opportunities to update vaccinations among Swiss employees

Childhood immunisation recall in Swiss employees

Abstract: Childhood Immunisation Recall in Swiss Employees: Julian SCHILLING, et al. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of ZurichDuring the workplace health promotion project "Check Bus", we asked 10,321 employees (4,070 women, 6,251 men, mean age=39 yr) of two nationwide Swiss enterprises, a large bank and an industrial company, about their vaccination status by using a selfadministered questionnaire. Among all respondents, 43.8% reported having a valid (up to date) tetanus vaccination (<10 years old), 29.9% a pertussis vaccination, 74.2% a poliomyelitis vaccination, 53.8% a tuberculosis vaccination, 22.7% a rubella vaccination and 12.7% an MMR vaccination (measles, mumps, rubella). A large number of respondents had no knowledge of their personal immunisation status. We found significant socio-demographic differences. For all vaccinations, age, gender (with the exception of MMR) and language independently predicted vaccination status. Hierarchic occupational rank was an independent and significant predictor for pertussis, poliomyelitis and tuberculosis vaccinations. Our study showed that especially elderly people, males and Italian speaking participants had a very limited knowledge of their personal vaccination status. (J Occup Health 2002; 44: 40-45