Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs of Adults and Elderly Outpatients Regarding Pneumococcal Vaccination at Taif Hospital Cluster

The whole world is invaded by many micro organisms which are not only killing people but also ruining the quality of life of the people worldwide. Vaccination against major micro-organism is the only way out to protect the people. Pneumonia and influenza are two leading causes of death especially the elderly within the globe.

Objective of the Study: It was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of adults and elderly outpatients regarding pneumococcal vaccination at the Taif hospital cluster and to understand the factors that may influence pneumococcal vaccination among the elderly and younger adults.

Materials and Methods: It was a cross sectional questionnaire study where Self-administered Monkey surveys was administered to a cohort of elderly and younger adult participants. The study was conducted for 4 months. Age group of the participants were within 20 - >80 years and included both Saudi and Non Saudi individual. The collected data were subjected to descriptive analysis to obtain the frequencies of the different variables and the correlation between them using cross tabs, paired-sample T-test, and Pearson’s Chi-square. p-value < 0.05 was taken as significant.

Results: Overall 301 people participated in the study (response rate 91%). A total of 32.56% responded that they had received the pneumococcal vaccine. From the respondents above 12.45% were between 20-40 years old, 10.72% between 41-60 years old, and 8.65% between 61-70 years and 2.07% between 71 to > 80 years of age, indicating lower rates of vaccination among the elderly. Vaccination depends on the patient's health conditions. Despite the positive knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of the participants about the importance of the vaccine, yet they did not respond well to take the vaccine as recommended by the international health authorities.

Conclusion: From the present study it can be concluded that gender has no statistically significant association with vaccination. More is the education more is the adherence to vaccination. Saudi nationals adhered more to vaccination as compared to non Saudi. The results from our study showed that healthcare guidance and recommendation significantly influenced vaccine uptake in both the elderly and younger adults.