Fourth Year Medical Students’ Level of Knowledge on Adult Immunization
Introduction: Health care workers have a higher risk of acquiring infections principally transmitted by blood and blood products than the normal population. Some of these infections are vaccine preventable diseases. Within this context, health care workers should be immunized against the vaccine-pre...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Bilimsel Tip Yayinevi
2013-12-01
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| Series: | Flora Infeksiyon Hastalıkları ve Klinik Mikrobiyoloji Dergisi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.floradergisi.org/getFileContent.aspx?op=REDPDF&file_name=2013-18-04-169-174.pdf |
| Summary: | Introduction: Health care workers have a higher risk of acquiring infections principally transmitted by blood and blood products than the normal population. Some of these infections are vaccine preventable diseases. Within this context, health care workers should be immunized against the vaccine-preventable diseases. This study was designed to evaluate the level of knowledge of medical students as future health professionals regarding adult immunization. Materials and Methods: In the 2012-2013 academic year, a questionnaire was conducted with the fourth year students of Ege University Medical School during their infectious diseases rotation. The questionnaire consisted questions on socio-demographics, resources of scientific information, and nine knowledge questions with a list of 20 infectious agents as choices. Correct answers (marking or unmarking each infectious agent) were based on international guidelines and each correct answer scored one point. The number of maximum possible scores for each question and each agent were calculated and each student’s number of correct answers were converted to percentages over these maximum scores. Results: A total of 238 students (58% male, mean age 22.3 ± 0.2) participated in the study with (82%) coverage. The students described their level of knowledge on adult immunization as 2.8% very bad, 21.9% bad, 60.9% moderate, 13.5% good, and 0.9% very good. Students had the highest scores for HPV, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and rabies (91.9%, 85.5%, 84.5%, and 84.5% respectively) while they had the lowest scores for rubella, mumps, rubeola, and varicella (43.2%, 41.6%, and 24.1% respectively). Conclusion: Fourth year medical students’ level of knowledge on adult immunization is considered good. However, their level of knowledge about the vaccination program and vaccines for health care professionals are lower and need to be improved. |
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| ISSN: | 1300-932X 1300-932X |