Abstract

SANTOS, Zênia Monteiro Guedes dos  and  OLIVEIRA, Maria Liz Cunha de. Assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices of the elderly about the vaccine against Influenza in a Public Health Unit, Taguatinga, Federal District, Brazil, 2009. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2010, vol.19, n.3, pp.205-216. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742010000300003.

OBJECTIVE: to identify the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of elderly with 60 years of age or more about the influenza vaccine in a public primary care health unit in Taguatinga, Federal District, Brazil,in 2009. METHODOLOGY: it was a cross-sectional, descriptive, epidemiological investigation. The research was performed by applying a questionnaire, with qualitative and quantitative items, with a representative sample of the elderly who attend the health unit,. RESULTS: 64.2% of the 95 participants in the sample said that the influenza was more serious than a regular flu, 78.9% participated in vaccination campaigns in 2008 and 42.1% believe that the vaccine prevents influenza. CONCLUSION: this study helped identify the main doubts of the elderly concerning the influenza vaccine as well as answering their key questions regarding the subject.

Keywords : influenza; elderly; vaccine; prevention; KAP.

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