Advising vaccinations for the elderly: a cross-sectional survey on differences between general practitioners and physician assistants in Germany

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Stefanie Castell¹  Gérard Krause²  Carolina Judith Klett-Tammen³  Thomas von Lengerke⁴ 

[1] Department for Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstr. 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany;Department for Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstr. 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany;Chair for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany;Department for Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstr. 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany;Institute for Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany;Medical Psychology Unit, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany;

关键词: Vaccination;    Elderly;    Aged;    General practitioners;    Physician assistants;    Health knowledge;    Attitudes;    Practice;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-016-0502-3

 received in 2016-03-24, accepted in 2016-07-21,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn Germany, the coverage of officially recommended vaccinations for the elderly is below a desirable level. It is known that advice provided by General Practitioners and Physician Assistants influences the uptake in patients ≥60 years. Therefore, the predictors of advice-giving behavior by these professions should be investigated to develop recommendations for possible actions for improvement.MethodsWe conducted a postal cross-sectional survey on knowledge, attitudes and advice - giving behavior regarding vaccinations in the elderly among General Practitioners and Physician Assistants in 4995 practices in Germany. To find specific predictors, we performed logistic regressions with non-advising on any officially recommended vaccination or on three specific vaccinations as four separate outcomes, first using all participants, then only General Practitioners and lastly only Physician Assistants as our study population.ResultsParticipants consisted of 774 General Practitioners and 563 Physician Assistants, of whom overall 21 % stated to have not advised an officially recommended vaccination in elderly patients. The most frequent explanation was having forgotten about it. The habit of not counselling on vaccinations at regular intervals was associated with not advising any vaccination (OR: 2.8), influenza vaccination (OR: 2.3), and pneumococcal vaccination (OR: 3.1). While more General Practitioners than Physician Assistants felt sufficiently informed (90 % vs. 79 %, p < 0.001), General Practitioners displayed higher odds to not advise specific vaccinations (ORs: 1.8–2.8).ConclusionsTo reduce the high risk of forgetting to advice on vaccinations, we recommend improving and promoting standing recall-systems, encouraging General Practitioners and Physician Assistants to counsel routinely at regular intervals regarding vaccinations, and providing Physician Assistants with better, tailor-made information on official recommendations and their changes.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016