Objective: To estimate the seasonal influenza vaccination coverage of health care workers and the factors associated with vaccination.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of 1058 staff workers from four hospitals used a self-administered questionnaire to document age, sex, education, and work including a second job in another health institution, contact with patients in their journal, knowledge and perception on the seasonal influenza vaccine and history of vaccination and when last vaccination was received. The expected gains of potential interventions to increase the vaccination coverage were estimated from the risk difference.
Results: Fifty three percent received the seasonal influenza vaccine in 2008 and 49% in 2007. Factors associated with vaccination in 2008 were knowledge of the target population, the vaccination schedule, adverse effects and that the vaccine does not produce influenza. The single most relevant association was receiving a recommendation to be vaccinated from the medical preventive services.
Conclusions: Vaccination coverage at hospitals in Guerrero, México, was into the range of the reported figures from other countries. This study demonstrates that preventive medicine services may play an important role in increasing the coverage of seasonal influenza vaccination.