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Seasonal influenza continues to be a significant public health issue causing hundreds of thousands of deaths annually. Nurses are a priority risk group for influenza vaccination and a high vaccine uptake rate among them is crucial to protect public health. Thus, the aim of our study was to estimate the levels of influenza vaccine acceptance, as well as its determinants, among nurses for the 2022/2023 season. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample in Greece. We collected data via an online survey in September 2022. Most of the nurses in the study possessed a MSc/PhD diploma (56.2%) and had previously been infected by SARS-CoV-2 (70.3%). Among nurses, 57.3% were willing to accept the influenza vaccine, 19% were hesitant, and 23.7% were unwilling. Older age, higher levels of perceived support from significant others, and higher COVID-19-related physical exhaustion were positively related to influenza vaccination intention. In contrast, more side effects because of COVID-19 vaccination and higher levels of exhaustion due to measures taken against COVID-19 were negatively associated with vaccination intention. Since the influenza vaccination acceptance rate among nurses was moderate, policymakers should develop and implement measures tailored specifically to nurses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic to decrease vaccine hesitancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, several instruments were developed to measure the psychological impact of COVID-19, such as fear, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, phobia, etc. Objective: To adapt cross-cultural and validate the "COVID Stress Scales" in Greek. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with 200 participants between November 2021 to February 2022. All participants were adults, and a convenience sample was obtained. We applied the forward-backward translation method to create a Greek version of the "COVID Stress Scales". We assessed reliability of the questionnaire with test-retest method in a 10-day window, and we assessed validity of the questionnaire with exploratory factor analysis. Results: Our five-factor model explained 72% of the variance and totally confirmed the factors of the initial "COVID Stress Scales". In particular, we found the following five factors: (a) COVID-19 danger and contamination (eleven items), (b) COVID-19 socioeconomic consequences (six items), (c) COVID-19 xenophobia (six items), (d) COVID-19 traumatic stress (six items), and (e) COVID-19 compulsive checking (six items). Cronbach's coefficients alpha for the five factors that emerged from the exploratory factor analysis were greater than 0.89 indicating an excellent internal reliability. Conclusions: We found that the "COVID Stress Scales" is a reliable and valid tool to measure stress due to the COVID-19 in the Greek population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]