Infection Prevention 2014

Hygiene behaviour and knowledge of infection protection. Vaccination behaviour and knowledge about vaccination.

Topics:

1. Hygiene behaviour and knowledge on infection control: self-assessment of health status; attention to one´s own health; opinion on promoting allergies through frequent hand washing; personal hygiene behaviour: Frequency of hand washing per day; duration of hand washing; use of soap or liquid soap for washing hands; preferred method of drying hands in public toilets (air, airblade, paper towels, cloth towels, etc.); washing hands with warm or cold water; frequency of hand washing in various situations (before eating, after touching animals, after shaking hands, before preparing food, when returning home, after using the toilet, after cleaning the nose or coughing in the hand, after contact with influenza sufferers or people with gastrointestinal diseases, before visiting people with impaired health); regular use of disinfectants for hand disinfection or use only in certain situations or never; reasons or situations for the use of such hand disinfectants; knowledge of the information sticker on the correct procedure for washing hands; visit the website www.infektionsschutz.de; educational films on the page infection protection. de seen; knowledge of the poster on hand hygiene ´Wo waren Deine Hände heute?´; awareness of the BZgA fact sheets ´Erregersteckbriefe´ on the Internet on infectious diseases; own behaviour when sneezing or coughing (in the hand held in front of you, in the crook of the elbow or the sleeve, in a handkerchief, minimum distance from others); assessment of coughing or sneezing in a handkerchief or into the crook of the elbow or the sleeve as effective protection against infection; frequency of use of a paper handkerchief before throwing it away; assessment of the risk of infection by touching it with one´s hands; knowledge of infectious diseases that can be transmitted via the hands; assessment of the effectiveness of protection against infection by dispensing with forms of greeting with touch; assessment of the effectiveness of regular ventilation against pathogens in indoor air; employment status; activity in the medical field; chronic illness; hygiene measures in the household in case of illness of a person (spatial separation of the sick person, hot washing of dishes and cutlery used by the sick person, cleaning or disinfection of surfaces, 60 degree washing of clothing and household laundry); knowledge test on the necessity of surface cleaning for infectious diseases with normal detergents or disinfectants; knowledge on the effectiveness of antibiotics; interest in information on infectious diseases and infection protection; institutions that should provide information on hygiene (medical practices, hospitals, pharmacies, schools or other educational institutions, state and federal authorities (e.g. BZgA), pharmaceutical manufacturers, health authorities, health insurance companies); preferred sources of information on hygiene measures (Internet, personal discussions with a doctor or a medical specialist, information brochures or leaflets, newspapers or magazines, television broadcasts, radio, information events in schools or kindergartens, discussions with friends or family members, information from state and federal authorities, pharmaceutical manufacturers, the health authority and the health insurance company as well as social networks).

2. Vaccination behaviour and knowledge of vaccination: assessment of the importance of vaccination for adults in selected diseases: Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, meningococcus, seasonal influenza, pneumococcus and women only: Human Papilloma Viruses (HPV); vaccination in the last five years; advice on vaccination received; informants (doctor, health insurance company, family, friends and acquaintances, others); personally important aspects about vaccination (personal protection against diseases against which vaccination is possible, exclusion of side effects, avoidance of infection of third parties, own contribution to the collective immunity (herd immunity) of the population); importance of vaccinating others to protect the respondent from infection; vaccination causes (to avoid endangering easily contagious persons, professionally necessary or prescribed, due to travel); recalled vaccinations in the past five years; vaccination against measles as an adult before 2009 or previous vaccination against seasonal influenza (non-vaccinated); importance of protecting third parties from measles infection for the personal decision to vaccinate against measles as an adult; confidence in the official vaccination recommendations; knowledge of the vaccination recommendation against whooping cough for close contact persons of newborns; knowledge of the vaccination recommendation against measles for adults born after 1970; measles disease in childhood or as an adult or effective protection against infection by measles vaccination in childhood or adolescence; planned measles vaccination next year; reasons for lack of measles vaccination protection; knowledge of diseases requiring booster vaccination in adulthood; holder of vaccination pass; location of vaccination pass known; vaccination not completed; obstacles to vaccination; self-assessment of information on adult vaccination; general interest in information on vaccination of adults; use of vaccination counselling in the last two years and vaccination adviser (doctor, pharmacist, medical assistant in the doctor´s practice, midwife, travel medical counselling centre, health authority, health insurance company); vaccination counselling by family doctor or other doctor; specialisation of the counselling doctor (internal medicine, gynaecologist, paediatrician, travel medicine, company doctor or other specialisation); interest in additional information on the subjects: side effects and health risks of vaccinations, mode of action of the vaccine against infection, duration of vaccination protection, vaccination recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), new developments of vaccines and reimbursement of costs by health insurance funds or employers; institutions that should provide information on the subject of vaccination (medical practices, hospitals, pharmacies, schools or other educational institutions, state and federal authorities (e.g. BZgA), pharmaceutical manufacturers, health authorities, health insurance funds); preferred sources of information on the subject of vaccination (Internet, personal discussions with a doctor or a medical specialist, information brochures or leaflets, newspapers or magazines, television programmes, radio, information events in schools or kindergartens, discussions with friends or family members, information from state and federal authorities, pharmaceutical manufacturers, health authorities, health insurance companies and social networks); website www.impfen-info.de visited; evaluation of this website as helpful; knowledge of the BZgA media for vaccination education (´Wir kommen der Grippe zuvor´, ´Deutschland sucht den Impfpass´, ´Impfung gegen Masern, Mumps und Röteln´- advertising success control); general attitude towards vaccination; pets in the household.

Respondents belonging to a risk group (indication group) (chronically ill and/or 60plus and/or medical staff) were asked: knowledge of the vaccination cycle for effective influenza protection; regular vaccination against seasonal influenza; reasons against regular influenza vaccination (vaccination obstacles); planned influenza vaccination next autumn; knowledge of the vaccination recommendation against influenza for medical staff, the over 60s and the chronically ill; knowledge of the vaccination recommendation against pneumococcus for the over 60s.

Only for women up to 45 years of age: existing pregnancy; desire to have children as a reason for vaccination against measles, whooping cough, flu or chickenpox; knowledge of vaccination recommendation against flu for pregnant women; pregnancy as a reason for not carrying out vaccination.

Demography: sex and age (year of birth) of the respondent; highest school or university degree, desired school leaving certificate (if student); country of birth; nationality; year of immigration to Germany; country of birth and nationality of parents (migration background); household size; number of children in the household under 16 years and age of these children (year of birth).

Additionally coded was: number of landline numbers in the household; number of private mobile numbers; willingness to re-survey; network type; sample (representative survey or increase); interview location (mobile sample); interview number; federal state; BIK-region; weighting factor.