Objectives: The authors had for aim to describe the main motivations of adults at work who spontaneously request influenza vaccine and the clinical profile of those vaccinated after the physician's suggestion.
Methods: A national cross-sectional survey was made in primary care practice. The physicians filled out a questionnaire describing their opinion on their vaccine practice and described the 7 first vaccinated adults between 18 and 64 years of age.
Results: 1,456 physicians included 9,163 patients 46+/-12 years of age. Two thirds (64.8%) of them were vaccinated against influenza after spontaneously requesting it. The arguments justifying these spontaneous requests were the professional consequences of influenza (45.7%), its familial consequences (42.0%), the discomfort induced by the disease (41.7%), financial consequences (20.3%), the risk for the home environment (19.6%) and the family, and professional pressure (17.2%). The physicians preferentially suggested vaccination to patients presenting respiratory risk factors and in particular prone to frequent respiratory infections (75.2%), with a history of bronchitis (69.2%) or asthma (68.3%). Less than one physician out of two suggested it systematically to smokers (43.1%) or patients having presented with influenza on the previous year (41.1%).
Conclusion: Among the adults at work vaccinated against influenza, two thirds spontaneously requested it, essentially for socioprofessional reasons, whilst its proposal by medical practitioners still remained limited to patients presenting a medical status likely to be worsened by influenza.