The Attitude towards Vaccination of Health Sciences Students at a Spanish University Improved over the First 18 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Francisco Javier Pérez-Rivas,María Julia Ajejas Bazán,Milagros Rico-Blázquez,Ramón Del Gallego-Lastra,Cristina Maria Alves Marques-Vieira,Candelas López-López,Silvia Domínguez-Fernández

doi:10.3390/vaccines10020237

Abstract

It is important to know the attitudes of students of health sciences (SHSs) towards vaccination since they will be tomorrow’s health professionals. Vaccination is a powerful tool in the fight against COVID-19. The aim of the present, cross-sectional study was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the attitude of SHSs towards vaccination. Data were collected in the form of a questionnaire from all students of nursing, physiotherapy and chiropody matriculated at a Madrid University for the academic year 2019/2020 (i.e., before the start of the pandemic [Q1]), and from all those matriculated for the year 2021/22 (i.e., c18 months after the pandemic was declared [Q2]). A multivariate analysis was performed to identify the influence of sex, degree being studied, course year and the time of answering (Q1 or Q2), on the dimensions Beliefs, Behaviours and General Attitude. Overall, 1894 questionnaires were returned (934 [49.3%] for Q1, and 960 [50.7%] for Q2), of which 70.5% were completed by students of nursing, 14% by students of physiotherapy and 15.4% by those studying chiropody. In Q2, the results for all three dimensions were significantly better (p < 0.05). The most important influencing factors were being a student of nursing, being in the final years of training (years 3 or 4), female gender and answering at the time of Q2. The results obtained are encouraging since student nurses (who showed Q1 and Q2 General Attitude scores of 3.34 and 3.47 (maximum possible 4), respectively [p < 0.05]) are the health professionals of tomorrow most likely to be involved in vaccination programmes.

Highlights

Despite vaccination being among the most successful means of controlling transmissible diseases [1], recent years have seen the rise of anti-vaccination movements, the rhetoric of which has contributed towards vaccine hesitancy [2,3]—even among health professionals [4,5]
The study subjects were 3222 students of nursing, physiotherapy and chiropody at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Madrid, Spain), 1582 of whom were matricu-lated for the academic year 2019/2020, and 1640 of whom were matriculated for the year 2021/2022
Some 70.5% of the returned questionnaires were provided by students of nursing, 14% by students of physiotherapy and 15.6% by those studying chiropody

Summary

Introduction

Despite vaccination being among the most successful means of controlling transmissible diseases [1], recent years have seen the rise of anti-vaccination movements, the rhetoric of which has contributed towards vaccine hesitancy [2,3]—even among health professionals [4,5]. This is worrying, since the latter have a great influence on the patients they see [6,7]. Students of the health sciences (SHSs) will be tomorrow’s health professionals, and on their shoulders will lie the responsibility of carrying out future vaccination programmes.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion