The Determinants of Vaccine Literacy in the Italian Population: Results from the Health Literacy Survey 2019

Cadeddu, Chiara; Regazzi, Luca; Bonaccorsi, Guglielmo; Rosano, Aldo; Unim, Brigid; Griebler, Robert; Link, Thomas; De Castro, Paola; D’Elia, Roberto; Mastrilli, Valeria; Palmieri, Luigi

doi:10.3390/ijerph19084429

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The Determinants of Vaccine Literacy in the Italian Population: Results from the Health Literacy Survey 2019

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Department of Life Sciences and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy

Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy

National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policy, 00198 Rome, Italy

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Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging, Italian National Institute of Health, 00162 Rome, Italy

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Competence Centre Health Promotion and Health System, Austrian National Public Health Institute, A-1010 Vienna, Austria

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Scientific Communication Unit, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy

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Ministry of Health, Viale Giorgio Ribotta, 5, 00144 Rome, Italy

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Gabriel Gulis

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(8), 4429; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084429

Received: 1 March 2022 / Revised: 29 March 2022 / Accepted: 31 March 2022 / Published: 7 April 2022

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health Literacy in the Mediterranean Countries)

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Abstract

Vaccines are among the most important public health achievements of the last century; however, vaccine awareness and uptake still face significant challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this phenomenon. Vaccine Literacy (VL) is the ability to find, understand and judge immunisation-related information to make appropriate immunisation decisions. A cross-sectional study on a sample of 3500 participants, representative of the Italian adult population aged 18+ years, was conducted in Italy in 2021. A validated questionnaire, including sections on health literacy (HL), sociodemographic characteristics, risk factors, and lifestyles of respondents, was used. VL was measured by four items (item 19, 22, 26 and 29) of the HL section. While 67.6% of the respondents had a “good” (47.5%) or “sufficient” (20.1%) level of VL, 32.4% had “limited” VL levels. Although the overall VL level was quite high, many participants reported difficulties in dealing with vaccination information, particularly those with a lower educational level, those living in southern and insular regions of Italy, those with greater financial deprivation and those with a migration background. Improving VL in Italy should be a top priority in the political agenda, with special regard to socially and geographically disadvantaged communities. View Full-Text

Keywords: health literacy; vaccination; health knowledge; attitudes; practice; health promotion; vaccination hesitancy; information-seeking behavior; surveys and questionnaires; COVID-19

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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Cadeddu, C.; Regazzi, L.; Bonaccorsi, G.; Rosano, A.; Unim, B.; Griebler, R.; Link, T.; De Castro, P.; D’Elia, R.; Mastrilli, V.; Palmieri, L. The Determinants of Vaccine Literacy in the Italian Population: Results from the Health Literacy Survey 2019. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 4429. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084429

AMA Style

Cadeddu C, Regazzi L, Bonaccorsi G, Rosano A, Unim B, Griebler R, Link T, De Castro P, D’Elia R, Mastrilli V, Palmieri L. The Determinants of Vaccine Literacy in the Italian Population: Results from the Health Literacy Survey 2019. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(8):4429. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084429

Chicago/Turabian Style

Cadeddu, Chiara, Luca Regazzi, Guglielmo Bonaccorsi, Aldo Rosano, Brigid Unim, Robert Griebler, Thomas Link, Paola De Castro, Roberto D’Elia, Valeria Mastrilli, and Luigi Palmieri. 2022. "The Determinants of Vaccine Literacy in the Italian Population: Results from the Health Literacy Survey 2019" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 8: 4429. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084429

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