Abstract:

Aim: This study aims to determine the attitudes of undergraduate nursing students studying at a public university toward childhood vaccines and to investigate whether the attitudes of students change according to sociodemographic characteristics, vaccination history, and perceived level of knowledge. Material and Method: This descriptive study was conducted with 83 students studying in the Department of Nursing at a public university in Konya between May 2020 and September 2021. The data were collected using the Information Form and the Public Attitude toward Vaccination-Health Belief Model Scale. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and the Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis non-parametric tests. Results: When the childhood vaccination attitude scores of the students were examined according to their sociodemographic characteristics, it was seen that there was a statistically significant difference between gender and the perceived barrier attitude score; between the economic status of the family and the perceived severity and perceived barrier attitude scores; the location of the high school graduated and the perceived severity, perceived importance, perceived benefit and perceived health responsibility attitude scores. When the distribution of students' childhood vaccination attitude scores across their childhood vaccination history and perceived level of knowledge about vaccines was examined, it was observed that there was a statistically significant difference between having sufficient knowledge about childhood vaccines and the perceived barrier attitude score. Conclusion: Our study revealed that gender, economic status, the location of the high school graduates, and the perceived level of knowledge about childhood vaccines affect vaccination attitudes.

Keywords: