Medical students’ attitude towards influenza vaccination

BMC Infectious Diseases

Research Article

Sabine Wicker¹  Gretchen Chapman²  Gerjo Kok³  Robert AC Ruiter³  Birthe A Lehmann³ 

[1] Betriebsärztlicher Dienst, Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60590, Frankfurt, Germany;Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, 08854-8020, Piscataway, NJ, USA;Department of Work & Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands;

关键词: Medical students;    Hospital;    Influenza vaccination;    Social-cognitive predictors;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12879-015-0929-5

 received in 2014-08-05, accepted in 2015-04-08,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundInfluenza vaccination is recommended for all healthcare personnel (HCP) and most institutions offer vaccination for free and on site. However, medical students do not always have such easy access, and the predictors that might guide the motivation of medical students to get vaccinated are largely unknown.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey study among pre-clinical medical students in a German University hospital to assess the social cognitive predictors of influenza vaccination, as well as reasons for refusal and acceptance of the vaccine.ResultsFindings show that pre-clinical medical students have comparable knowledge gaps and negative attitudes towards influenza vaccination that have previously been reported among HCP. Lower injunctive norms and higher feelings of autonomy contribute to no intention to get vaccinated against influenza, while a positive instrumental attitude and higher feelings of autonomy contribute to a high intention to get vaccinated. The variables in the regression model explained 20% of the variance in intention to get vaccinated.ConclusionsThe identified factors should be addressed early in medical education, and hospitals might benefit from a more inclusive vaccination program and accessibility of free vaccines for their medical students.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Lehmann et al.; licensee Biomed Central. 2015