Attitudes towards immunization and the state of knowledge about vaccines among Polish students

Abstract

Introduction:Although vaccines are said to be one of the most significant discoveries in contemporary medicine, the problem of vaccine hesitancy is becoming an increasingly important public health issue. Such a state of affairs poses a significant risk of rare disease outbreaks. Moreover, the recent COVID-19 pandemic was brought under control, among other things, by mass vaccinations -yet still, many people are reluctant to use them. This research assesses possible reasons behind the problem and its magnitude in a group of Polish students from various universities. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in April-June 2021 with a self-administered questionnaire among 301 undergraduate students from Polish universities. Results: Students' trust in the vaccines' effectiveness mainly depended on the field of studies, the kind of sources of knowledge about vaccines they used, their knowledge levels about them, and the experience of developing an illness that a vaccine should protect them against. The kind of sources of knowledge and the levels of knowledge affected students' decisions about whether they wanted to vaccinate their future children or not. Respondents' levels of knowledge about vaccines correlated with their subject of studies and were the highest among those who used mostly scientific sources of knowledge about the vaccines. Conclusions: This research demonstrates that education improvement regarding the process of immunization is a crucial step towards the solution to the problem of vaccine hesitancy. It is also very significant to promote the use of verified scientific sources of information about vaccines.