Background: Quick vaccine rollouts and compliance with preventive strategies are crucial for a country recovery from COVID-19, but vaccine hesitancy could prolong the pandemic and the need for physical distancing and lockdowns. Aim of the study: was to assess the levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, protective behaviors and risk perception among university students in Alexandria. Study design: An online cross-sectional exploratory survey research design was used in this study. Setting: This study was conducted in all faculties affiliated to Alexandria University. Subjects: Convenient sample of 1000 university students were selected by equal allocation method. Tools of data collection: Three tools were used for data collection. The first tool was "Vaccine Hesitancy Scale" to assess the students' hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. The second tool was "The Protective behavior against COVID-19 Scale" to measure the protective behaviors against COVID-19. While, the third tool was "Risk Perception Scale" to measure the public risk perception for public health emergencies. Results: The results of this study showed that more than one quarter of them had a high level of vaccine hesitancy, while less than half of them had a good level of protective behaviors against COVID 19. On the other hand, less than one quarter of the studied students had high level of risk perception. Conclusion: The study concluded that university students, are among the population at risk of being infected with COVID-19 and transmitting the infection to others owing to the sense of invulnerability and their poor compliance with protective behaviors, including administration of vaccination against Covid-19. Recommendations: It is essential to raise awareness among university students about Covid-19 to change negative vaccine attitudes and increase the acceptance and uptake of Covid-19 vaccines.
Background: Communication between parents and adolescents regarding sexual and reproductive health issues is difficult and facing challenges and barriers for both parents and adolescents. Aim of the study: was to identify communication barriers with parents regarding reproductive health issues from the adolescents' perspectives in Alexandria. Subjects and method:Study design: Descriptive research design was used in this study. Setting: This study was conducted in 8 youth centers in Alexandria. Subjects: A random sample of 450 adolescents were selected by proportional allocation method. Tools of data collection: Three tools were used for data collection. The first tool was used to identify socio-demographic characteristics related to the adolescents and their parents. The second tool was used to assess the adolescents' knowledge regarding reproductive health and puberty changes as well as the importance of communication with parents about reproductive health issues. While, the third tool was used to measure the barriers of adolescent-parent's communication about reproductive health issues and the effects of poor communication. Results: The vast majority of the studied adolescents had poor level of knowledge about reproductive health issue and less than two thirds of them did not communicate with their parents about reproductive health issues, while less than quarter of them had many barriers against the communication with their parents about reproductive health and less than one quarter of them had major physical effects of poor communication. Conclusion: Poor adolescent-parent communication about reproductive health issues is a major problem among adolescents which may have serious implications on them. Recommendations :It is essential to maintain open and comfortable communication with adolescents on regular basis about reproductive health issues.
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