Awareness of Vaccination and Attitudes Towards Vaccine Refusal Among Healthcare Workers at a University Hospital

Ayşe Özkanlı and Neriman Aydın

Background and Objective: Immunity, susceptibility and carrier status of healthcare workers against infections are very important. Therefore, ensuring the immunity of healthcare workers in vaccine-preventable diseases is an important issue that needs to be addressed. This research was conducted to determine the general vaccination status, knowledge, attitudes towards vaccines and vaccine refusal among healthcare workers and students. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with hospital staff and students from medical and health sciences faculties. A total of 550 individuals working and studying at Gaziantep University Sahinbey Research and Application Hospital were selected by an appropriate method and face-to-face interviews were conducted using a questionnaire. The Chi-square, t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis, Mann-Whitney U Test were used in the analyses together with descriptive statistics. Results: The participants had an average age of 37.1±8.2, with 52.4% being male. The 80.7% of healthcare workers had a bachelor’s degree or higher. The 77.5% of the participants believed they were at risk for infectious diseases. The 92.7% of the participants thought that healthcare workers should receive the Hepatitis B vaccine and 54% reported having received this vaccine. The 17.1% of healthcare workers stated that they had refused vaccination. The 89.6% of the participants mentioned refusing the influenza vaccine. Young healthcare workers expressed more hesitation when vaccinating their children. Conclusion: Efforts should be made to increase vaccination rates among healthcare workers. Vaccine refusal and hesitancy pose a threat not only to the individual but also to public health, suggesting a need for more comprehensive solutions to address vaccine refusal.

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