Knowledge and Attitudes of School Teachers on Vaccination in Greece

Gkentzi, Despoina; Benetatou, Eleni; Karatza, Ageliki; Marangos, Markos; Varvarigou, Anastasia; Dimitriou, Gabriel

Few studies have assessed attitudes and beliefs of school teachers on vaccination. Our cross-sectional questionnaire-based prospective survey aims to explore vaccination coverage and relevant knowledge of school teachers in Greece. Out of the 217 respondents, 93% believe that vaccines offer protection but only 69.7% were completely vaccinated as per adults' National Immunization Schedule. In multivariate analysis, female gender, being a parent, beliefs that vaccination should be mandatory and imposing penalties to vaccine refusals are the main factors that account for teachers' “behavioral” variability towards vaccination. Strengthening the training of school teachers in health promotion should become a priority in the era of the highly anticipated vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).