Knowledge and attitudes of university students toward pandemic influenza: a cross-sectional study from Turkey

Abstract

BackgroundDuring an influenza pandemic, higher education institutions with large populations of young adults can become serious outbreak centers. Since outbreak management is essential to disease control, we aimed to examine university students' knowledge of and attitudes toward the pandemic influenza A/H1N1 and vaccination and other preventive measures.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 402 first year university students at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey between 1st and 30th of November 2009. Data regarding socio-demographic characteristics of the students, perceptions, level of knowledge and attitudes toward influenza pandemic and prevention measures were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed by the students affiliated with SANITAS, a university club of students in health related sciences.Results25.1% (101/402) of the study group perceived their personal risk of influenza as "high", while 40.5% (163/402) perceived it as "moderate", 20.6% (107/402) viewed it as "low" and 7.7% (31/402) indicated that it was "unknown". The risk perception of males was significantly lower than that of females (p = 0.004) and the risk perception among the students of health sciences was significantly lower than that of students of other sciences (p = 0.037). Within the study group, 72.1% (290/402) indicated that their main information source regarding H1N1 was the mass media. Health sciences students tended to rely more on the internet as an information source than other students (p = 0.015). The vast majority (92.8%; 373/402) of those interviewed indicated that they would not be vaccinated. The major concerns regarding vaccination had to do with the safety and side effects of the vaccine. Most of the participants (343/402, 85.3%) were carrying out one of prevention measures and the vast majority believed that hand washing, face mask and quarantina were effective measures for prevention.ConclusionThe participants had enough knowledge about H1N1 pandemic about the disease although there were still gaps and confusions in some areas. In the future, when planning management strategies regarding pandemics or outbreaks in higher education institutions, new strategies should be developed to promote positive health behaviour among university students compatible with the international guidelines. Main information source is mass media, so it seems that new policies must be developed to attract attention of students to use different and more scientific-based information sources.

Willingness to Receive the Influenza A(H1N1) Vaccine and its Determinants among University Students during the 2009 Outbreak in Turkey

“…In this study, the unreliability and side effects were the main reasons for unwillingness. That was similar to other surveys, apart from the study of Jaramillo AE et al [3,[14][15][16]. One of an interesting results of our study was the effect of the media on the attitudes of students.…”

“…The low level of knowledge towards H1N1 of the health group students who shall be a reliable source of knowledge for the public derives a necessity of education and training. The willingness to receive the Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine was quite low in our study like other studies in Turkey, although lower than studies in other countries, especially for the health group compared to international health proffesionals [3,5,10,[14][15][16]. Additionally, a considerable proportion of the study group was undecided.…”

“…One of an interesting results of our study was the effect of the media on the attitudes of students. The media was determined to be most often used information resource of the H1N1 vaccine and also a source of fear and confusion as discussed worldwide [3,4,6,17,18].…”

“…The attitudes, beliefs and knowledge of the community which were found to affect the outspread of pandemics as they significantly affect the acceptance of the influenza vaccine and play a key role in evolving of H1N1 pandemics [3,5,6].…”

“…December 2009, and the vaccination programme started on 02 November 2009 [3]. Children, adolescents and young adults were high risk groups with highest morbidity [4].…”