Vaccination: favorable French people… but ill-informed - A la une

2023-04-27 10:50:17

27 avril 2023

On the occasion of European Vaccination Week, Public Health France publishes data showing that more than 8 out of 10 French people adhere to vaccination recommendations. However, are they really well informed?

Are the French increasingly wary of vaccination? Not really if we are to believe the figures published by Public Health France on the occasion of European Vaccination Week, which takes place from April 24 to 30, 2023. Thus we learn that in 2022, “ 84.6% of people questioned in mainland France said they were in favor of vaccination in general, a figure up from 2021 (82.5%) ».

In fact, we see that the increase in the use of vaccination continues in many categories:

In infants born from 1^is January 2018, for which the extension of the vaccination obligation applies. The increase continues with 1 additional point for the vaccination coverage of the 2^th dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at the age of 33 months between 2019 and 2020 and + 0.3 points for the vaccination coverage of the 3^th dose of the hexavalent vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae b and hepatitis B) at the age of 21 months between 2020 and 2021.
Vaccination against papillomavirus (HPV) infections increased by 4 points among 16-year-old girls born in 2006 compared to those born in 2005. Same for boys: vaccination coverage is 12.8 % for the first dose at age 15 compared to 6% last year.
During the 2022-2023 season, the vaccination coverage of people at risk of severe influenza was 51.5%, a slight decrease compared to the previous season (52.6%), but an increase compared to the 2019 season. -2020 (47.8%), which preceded the COVID-19 epidemic.

The French not sufficiently informed

All these data from Public Health France are confirmed by an Ipsos survey for the GSK laboratory: 3 out of 4 French people believe that vaccines have more health benefits than risks and parents are also overwhelmingly convinced of this. And more than half of French people recommend vaccination to their relatives.

However, the people questioned have a poor knowledge of the existing vaccine offer. For example, only 14% of them know that there is a vaccine against shingles and 21% against rotavirus, responsible for gastroenteritis in children.

Moreover, less than 1 out of 2 French people are certain that they are up to date with their vaccinations, 46% are not completely sure… and 10% are certain that they are not! Finally, on the side of vaccination against the flu, nearly one in four unvaccinated people are not vaccinated because they think their immune system can defend itself without a vaccine.

« These results show that if many French people do not get vaccinated or are not up to date with their vaccination, it is primarily because of the lack of information on vaccines. “, reacts Étienne Mercier, director of the Opinion and Health division of Ipsos. ” This is the main obstacle today. They need education. »

Source : Public Health France – Ipsos survey for GSK conducted from March 30 to April 3, 2023 among 4,000 people constituting a representative sample of the population aged 18 and over.
Written by : Vincent Roche – Edited by: Emmanuel Ducreuzet