OBJECTIVES : Influenza attack rate is commonly accepted to be lower than 2 in community settings, but it has been shown that it could be much higher in hospital settings. This is why vaccination of healthcare workers (HCW) is essential to prevent nosocomial epidemics. The aim of this study was to determine the reasons of such low influenza vaccine coverage rates (VCR) among HCW in France, and to determine its brakes and incitements in the subgroup of medical and pharmacy residents.

METHODS : We shared a self-administered 18-item survey to residents in France from 01/25/2019 to 05/31/2019 through professional networks. The inclusion criteria was to be resident in France. We compared the incitements and brakes (both closed and open questions) among vaccinated (VAX) and non-vaccinated (nVAX) residents.

RESULTS : Among the 1571 answers, 1541 were included. The VCR was 72.4% (1115/1541). VAX were not more likely to trust vaccine effectiveness (p=0.24) nor safety (p=0.24) than the nVAX. No difference of willingness in being vaccinated was found between the two groups, who were both willing to vaccinate for themselves (VAX; nVAX respectively: 89%, n=994; 80%, n=342), for their immediate social circle (80%, n=891; 80%, n=342) and for patients (90%, n=1003; 72%, n=307). However, we found differences for the brakes: lack of time (15%, n=162, 37%, n=159, p<0.05) and omission (10%, n=108; 33%, n=139, p<0.05) respectively for VAX and nVAX.

CONCLUSIONS : As lack of time and omission are the main brakes in the nVAX group it could be very useful to promote vaccination directly in the healthcare services repeatedly in the same season. As the VCR is high for this subgroup, these brakes should be compared to those of HCW with lower VCR in order to increase their VCR. This study is the first to explore VCR in medical and pharmacy residents population in France.