Vaccination against COVID-19 as prevention of occupational disease in University of Defence members in the Czech Republic - motivation for vaccination and reasons for hesitancy.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in University of Defence members. BACKGROUND: Vaccination is the most important method of prevention against COVID-19 and achieving sufficient vaccination rate is thus essential to maintain the military capability. METHODOLOGY: An online questionnaire was distributed electronically to 2,408 respondents in autumn 2021. The survey was designed to collect demographic predictors of vaccination, data on motivation and reasons for refusing vaccination. RESULTS: A total of 626 completed questionnaires were analyzed, of which 557 (89 %) were vaccinated and 69 (11 %) were unvaccinated respondents. The most significant predictors of vaccine acceptance were: concern about COVID-19 (OR 2.44, p < 0.001), history of COVID-19 (OR 0.39, p = 0.001). The most frequently cited motives for vaccination were health protection (74.7 %) and an easier social life (69.1 %), while concerns about vaccine safety and vaccine adverse effects (79.1 %) followed by lack of confidence in vaccine efficacy (68.7 %) were the main reasons for vaccine refusal. CONCLUSION: To increase the vaccination rate it is necessary to target the younger population and increase awareness of vaccine safety and efficacy. If these measures are not sufficient to encourage voluntary vaccine acceptance, consideration should be given to making vaccination mandatory for selected professional groups (Tab. 5, Fig. 1, Ref. 25).

Occupational diseases arising in the area of the Ministry of Defence in the Czech Republic and their relationship to work categorization.

OBJECTIVE: The article deals with occupational health protection and identification of health risks in the work environment of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of the Czech Republic (CR). It focuses on the assessment of the incidence of occupational diseases (OD) in high-risk and risk-free occupational categories in the years 2010-2019 and compares them with data from the civilian sector. It identifies the differences between military staff and civilian employees of the MoD. METHODS: From the records of OD at the Department of Occupational Diseases of the Central Military Hospital in Prague, the data on acknowledged OD from the years 2010 to 2019 were obtained and then a retrospective analysis focusing on the classification of work at risk was performed. The obtained data were compared with the data from the Czech National Registry of Occupational Diseases (NROD), which are published annually by the National Institute of Public Health. RESULTS: In the years under review, 191 OD were confirmed at the area of MoD, 26% of all OD occurred in employees classified in the occupational risk category. Compared with the data in the NROD, where 50% of OD were found to have been caused by high-risk work, the incidence of OD caused by high-risk work in professional soldiers is lower. Only 1.6% of all OD occurred in professional soldiers whose work was classified as high-risk one. In civilian employees of MoD 24.6% of all OD were connected with high-risk work. On the contrary, the proportion of OD occurring in professional soldiers working in risk-free categories was 57.6%, in civilian employees of MoD was the ratio much lower - 16.2%. CONCLUSION: Work at the Ministry of Defence was not adequately categorized, therefore, in 2020 a new categorization of work was introduced, which together with preventive measures could contribute to reducing the incidence of OD at the Ministry of Defence.