Naveed Ahmed Shaikh, Mir Fahad Hussain Talpur, Shahbaz Ali Shah, Rajesh Kumar, Khalid Iqbal Bhatti, Tariq Ashraf, Ayesha Samad, Syed Taimour Hussain.
Awareness and knowledge sharing among physicians regarding influenza and pneumococcal vaccines for cardiovascular patients.
Pak Heart J Jan ;55(1):10-4.

Objectives: We conducted this survey to evaluate the knowledge of cardiologists, internists, and family physicians regarding influenza and pneumonia vaccination among cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. Methodology: An online survey was conducted including practicing cardiologist, internists, and family physicians at various positions working in tertiary health care centres of all major hospitals in all over the Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was designed to assess the physicians’ knowledge toward influenza and pneumococcal vaccine and barriers for prescribing it to the recommended CVD patients. Results: A total of 380 physicians participated in this survey, out of which 58.9% (224) were male and majority 96.3% (366) were ≤ 40 years of age. A 82.6% (314) participants indorsed that the pneumococcal vaccine is Class I indication in cardiac patients above 65 years of age, while, 48.2% (183) considered it to be recommended by the ACC/AHA in all age groups of cardiac patients. Pneumococcal vaccine are considered to be live attenuated vaccines by the 41.8% (159) of the participants. The mean knowledge score was found to be 63.09 ± 13.61. The most common stated reasons for not prescribing pneumococcal vaccine was not readily available, 42.9% (42), followed by the perception that it is not indicated, 36.7% (36). Conclusion: Most of the physicians were not thoroughly well-aware about indications of the vaccine in CVD patients. Additionally, scope of the vaccine is under-estimated because of lack of knowledge regarding importance of vaccine and secondly due to unavailability of vaccine in most of the areas of Pakistan.

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