Practices of French family physicians concerning varicella vaccination for teenagers.

OBJECTIVES

The authors assessed the knowledge and practices of French family physicians concerning the application of the new 2007 varicella vaccination guidelines for non-immune teenagers, 12 to 18 years of age. They also estimated the vaccination coverage in this population.

METHOD: A questionnaire link was sent by to 1008 family physicians of the French Inserm Sentinel network. Each family physician had to include the last teenager aged 12 to 18 years seen in consultation, with no or uncertain history of clinical varicella.

RESULTS

One hundred and forty-one family physicians agreed to participate and included one patient (participation rate=14%) between 4th November 2010 and 4th January 2011. One hundred and thirty-three questionnaires out of 141 (94%) were analyzed. Three patients were vaccinated and 127 were not, giving a weak vaccination coverage in the investigated population at 2%. Eighty-nine family physicians (70%) did not know about the recommendation, and 90 (71%) declared that they had no intention to vaccinate their patient against varicella.

CONCLUSION

Guidelines on varicella vaccination of non-immune teenagers are poorly followed and accepted by family physicians. Vaccination coverage is very low, and efforts should be made to improve application of recommendations.