Table 1. Main demographic and professional characteristics of participating paediatricians, survey on vaccine knowledge, Italy, 2016 (n = 903).

Characteristic (with number who responded to the specific question)		n	%
Age in years (n = 885)	< 35	39	4.4
	35–44	96	10.8
	45–54	169	19.1
	55–64	487	55.0
	> 64	94	10.6
Sex (n = 882)	Male	308	34.9
	Female	574	65.1
Country where medical degree was obtained (n = 875)	Italy	864	98.7
	Foreign	11	1.3
Years since medical degree (n = 883)	0–5	3	0.3
	6–10	45	5.1
	11–20	94	10.6
	> 20	741	83.9
Years since specialty certification (n = 872)	0–5	63	7.2
	6–10	46	5.3
	11–20	77	8.8
	> 20	686	78.7
Type of practice (n = 880)	Primary care paediatrician	629	71.5
	Community paediatrician	17	1.9
	Hospital paediatrician	161	18.3
	Private practice	57	6.5
	Retired	16	1.8
Practice location (n = 883)	Large city (> 250,000 population)	182	20.6
	Medium-sized city (50,000–250,000 population)	276	31.3
	Small city/town (< 50,000 population)	425	48.1
Years of activity as a paediatrician (n = 882)	< 1	16	1.8
	1–5	61	6.9
	6–10	47	5.3
	> 10	758	85.9
Vaccine courses or conferences in previous 5 years (n = 870)	No	165	19.0
	Yes	705	81.0
Vaccinology training (n = 882)	No	594	67.3
	Yes	288	32.7
Degree of influence of formal university training (n = 717)	Low	252	35.1
	High	465	64.9
Degree of influence of the scientific literature (n = 780)	Low	40	5.1
	High	740	94.9
Degree of influence of conference participation (n = 803)	Low	29	3.6
	High	774	96.4
Degree of influence of institutional websites (n = 652)	Low	133	20.4
	High	519	79.6
Degree of influence of non-institutional websites (n = 596)	Low	470	78.9
	High	126	21.1
Degree of influence of discussions with other colleagues (n = 679)	Low	107	15.8
	High	572	84.2
Implemented vaccination initiatives (n = 901)	No	250	27.7
	Yes	651	72.3
Administers vaccines (n = 896)	No	479	53.5
	Occasionally	302	33.7
	Regularly	115	12.8

Denominators differ for each characteristic as not all paediatricians responded to all questions.