Measuring public health officers' opinions on new vaccination programs by means of the WHO Vaccine Introduction Guidelines.

A group of public health officers and gynecologists were requested to express their opinion on whether immunization for: HPV in girls older than 12 years, varicella with combined MMRV vaccine and rotavirus (RV) should be included in the National Immunization Plan in Italy. For each of the three immunization programs, a specific questions list was prepared following the eight steps of the WHO Vaccine Introduction Guidelines flowchart. For each immunization strategy, a logistic regression model was used to identify the set of topics which, jointly considered, showed the strongest influence on the final responder's statement. Eighty-seven responders (82% of which were public health officers) out of 127 participants provided 247 evaluable questionnaires. The final statement "to introduce the vaccine" was voted by 83.5%, 77.9% and 52.4% for HPV, MMRV and RV, respectively. The public health priority, the burden of disease, the economic and financial issues and the vaccine presentation were the most relevant topics, however, the pattern was different among the three immunization strategies.