Perceptions of Health Sciences Faculty Students about Covid-19 and their Attitudes towards Covid-19 Vaccination

ABSTRACT

Objective: It is thought that the COVID-19 pandemic can be controlled with an effective and safe vaccination. The thoughts and attitudes of individuals towards the disease and the vaccine are important for the success of vaccination. This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of health sciences faculty students about COVID-19 and their attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used. The study consisted of students studying at the Faculty of Health Sciences between June and September 2021. A total of 674 students participated in the study. Findings: The mean age of participants was 20.62±1.88 years, and 85.3% of them were female. Of the participants, 76.1% stated that they had been vaccinated against COVID-19. It was found that positive attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine were high among students who were male, were studying nutrition and dietetics, and were 3rd and 4th-year students. Conclusions: In this study determined that most of the students had received the COVID-19 vaccine. Students obtained the lowest score on the belief sub-dimension of the perception of causes of COVID-19 scale and the highest on the environment sub-dimension. It was found that students' scores on the attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine scale were moderate.