OBJECTIVES: The objective of our study was to learn the vaccination coverage against seasonal influenza, nonspecific and specific prevention habits, and attitudes related to vaccination.

METHODS: We conducted a quantitative, cross-sectional survey with non-random sampling method among the healthcare workers of the Harkány Spa Hospital, the Emergency Patient Care Department, Department of Emergency Medicine and the Intensive Anaesthesiologic and Therapeutic Institute of the Clinical Center of the University of Pécs (n=254). The questionnaire involved the following question types: sociodemographic data, specific/nonspecific prevention against influenza, and attitudes, habits related to vaccination. Data analysis (with 95% probability) was carried out by descriptive statistics, χ test with Z-test and Bonferroni correction, Spearman’s correlation, Kruskal-Wallis test, and as a post hoc test Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction, and multinominal logistic regression concerning normality. We used SPSS 22.0 program for data analysis.

RESULTS: The questionnaire was completed by 121 healthcare workers in acute care, and 133 employees in chronic care. 55.5% of them never had vaccination against seasonal influenza. Workers in acute care (ß=1.155; 95%OR=3.17 [1.27;7.92]; p=0.013) and persons with higher education (ß=0.714; 95%OR=2.04 [1.09;3.81]; p=0.025) were more likely to be vaccinated than people in chronic care. People in acute care (Mann-Whitney U=3509.500; p<0.001;) had hand disinfection more times and wore mask ,(χ=32.668; p<0.05) protective gloves (χ=58.307; p<0,05) and goggles (χ=58.307; p<0.05) more frequently than people in chronic care. People in chronic care did not believe that seasonal influenza was a severe disease (Mann-Whitney U=1046.500; p<0.001), therefore, according to them, they did not belong to a group vulnerable to influenza (Mann-Whitney U=1167.000; p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: Education of professionals in chronic care and information provision concerning specific and nonspecific prevention against influenza to healthcare workers play an essential role in workplace communication. It should be treated as a priority issue due to the increase in compliance value.