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Acceptance of Hepatitis B Vaccine by Hospital Personnel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Kent B. Crossley ,
Dale N. Gerding  and
Robert A. Petzel
Kent B. Crossley*
Affiliation:
Infectious Diseases Section and the Department of Medicine, St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, theMinneapolis Veterans Administration Hospitaland theUniversity of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dale N. Gerding
Affiliation:
Infectious Diseases Section and the Department of Medicine, St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, theMinneapolis Veterans Administration Hospitaland theUniversity of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Robert A. Petzel
Affiliation:
Infectious Diseases Section and the Department of Medicine, St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, theMinneapolis Veterans Administration Hospitaland theUniversity of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
*
St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, 640 Jackson Street, St. Paul, MN 55101
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Abstract

Personnel at high risk of acquiring hepatitis B in two university-affiliated teaching hospitals were offered immunization against this disease. Of the 1,193 employees, 454 (38%) requested immunization. Individuals who declined or deferred immunization were sent questionnaires requesting the reasons for their decisions. Responses to the questionnaire were received from 487 of 674 personnel (72%). Most respondents (>90%) indicated that they: 1) were aware of being at risk of acquiring hepatitis B, and 2) recognized the potential danger of the disease. A majority of respondents (56%) indicated that they had decided not to be immunized because they wanted to wait until more was known about the vaccine. Concern about specific side effects (eg, Guillain-Barré syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was cited much less often as a reason for declining immunization. Nearly one-fifth of questionnaire respondents either did not know the date of their last tetanus-diphtheria immunization or had not received a booster within the past decade.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , April 1985 , pp. 147 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1985

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