TY - JOUR
T1 - Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of a sample of Italian paediatricians towards RSV and its preventive strategies: a cross-sectional study
AU - Congedo, Giulia
AU - Lombardi, Gaia Surya
AU - Zjalic, Doris
AU - Di Russo, Mattia
AU - La Gatta, Emanuele
AU - Regazzi, Luca
AU - Indolfi, Giuseppe
AU - Staiano, Annamaria
AU - Cadeddu, Chiara
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Background Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection mainly affects newborns, infants and young children aged < 2 years. Since an RSV vaccine is in the European Medicines Agency's waitlist validation, nowadays the prevention only includes passive immunization with monoclonal antibodies (mAb). In the present study we aimed at investigating Italian paediatricians' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards RSV and its prevention. Methods From February to May 2023, an anonymous online questionnaire, with answers based on the Likert scale, was administered to a sample of Italian paediatricians' members of the Italian Society of Paediatrics. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed using STATA 17. Results The paediatricians who answered the questionnaire were 507, mostly women (70.6%), aged 30-45 (33.1%), employed in hospitals in 66.6% of cases. The 10.8% of respondents reported that RSV is transmitted only among children younger than 2 years of age and 80.33% of participants that school-age children are not at risk of developing severe forms of RSV disease. The 25% of participants thought that active immunization is currently available to prevent RSV infection and 35.7% that does not exist passive immunization to prevent RSV for infants and newborns aged < 2 years. The 97.5% of physicians managed bronchiolitis cases and 65.6% of participants did not prescribe the administration of mAb. Higher age, seniority and RSV knowledge score were found to be associated with having a higher mAb knowledge score (p < 0.001) and having a higher RSV knowledge was associated with a higher mAb knowledge score (p < 0.001). The logistic regression model found that the odds of a positive attitude towards mAB knowledge score increased by over 3 times (OR 3.23, 95% CI [1.41, 7.40], p = 0.006) for being female and the odds of a positive attitude towards mAB knowledge score increased by almost 10 times (OR 9.73, 95% CI [3.06, 30.89], p < 0.001) for a one-unit increase in RSV knowledge score. Conclusions Paediatricians' limited knowledge or awareness could represent a barrier to the implementation of preventive strategies against RSV infection. Strategies to improve paediatricians' education on RSV prevention are, therefore, crucial.
AB - Background Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection mainly affects newborns, infants and young children aged < 2 years. Since an RSV vaccine is in the European Medicines Agency's waitlist validation, nowadays the prevention only includes passive immunization with monoclonal antibodies (mAb). In the present study we aimed at investigating Italian paediatricians' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards RSV and its prevention. Methods From February to May 2023, an anonymous online questionnaire, with answers based on the Likert scale, was administered to a sample of Italian paediatricians' members of the Italian Society of Paediatrics. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed using STATA 17. Results The paediatricians who answered the questionnaire were 507, mostly women (70.6%), aged 30-45 (33.1%), employed in hospitals in 66.6% of cases. The 10.8% of respondents reported that RSV is transmitted only among children younger than 2 years of age and 80.33% of participants that school-age children are not at risk of developing severe forms of RSV disease. The 25% of participants thought that active immunization is currently available to prevent RSV infection and 35.7% that does not exist passive immunization to prevent RSV for infants and newborns aged < 2 years. The 97.5% of physicians managed bronchiolitis cases and 65.6% of participants did not prescribe the administration of mAb. Higher age, seniority and RSV knowledge score were found to be associated with having a higher mAb knowledge score (p < 0.001) and having a higher RSV knowledge was associated with a higher mAb knowledge score (p < 0.001). The logistic regression model found that the odds of a positive attitude towards mAB knowledge score increased by over 3 times (OR 3.23, 95% CI [1.41, 7.40], p = 0.006) for being female and the odds of a positive attitude towards mAB knowledge score increased by almost 10 times (OR 9.73, 95% CI [3.06, 30.89], p < 0.001) for a one-unit increase in RSV knowledge score. Conclusions Paediatricians' limited knowledge or awareness could represent a barrier to the implementation of preventive strategies against RSV infection. Strategies to improve paediatricians' education on RSV prevention are, therefore, crucial.
KW - Child health
KW - Immunization
KW - Respiratory syncytial virus
KW - Prevention
KW - Public health
KW - Infectious diseases
KW - Child health
KW - Immunization
KW - Respiratory syncytial virus
KW - Prevention
KW - Public health
KW - Infectious diseases
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/297598
U2 - 10.1186/s13052-024-01593-1
DO - 10.1186/s13052-024-01593-1
M3 - Article
SN - 1720-8424
VL - 50
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - THE ITALIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS
JF - THE ITALIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS
ER -