Pertussis vaccination status and vaccine acceptance among medical students: multicenter study in Germany and Hungary

Abstract

BackgroundMedical students are at risk of contracting and transmitting infectious diseases such as pertussis. Complete vaccination status is important to protect own, patient and public health. Knowing own vaccination status is elementary for following current vaccination recommendations, including boosters. We aimed to assess pertussis vaccination status and vaccination acceptance among medical students of different nationalities.MethodsA cross-sectional multicenter health survey at German and Hungarian universities enclosed international medical students in the 1st, 3rd and 5th year of study. Self-reported data from 2655 students regarding pertussis vaccination status were analyzed. Subgroup analysis enclosed data of German (n = 1217), Hungarian (n = 960) and other nationality (n = 478) students (“other”).ResultsMore Hungarians reported basic immunization (39.0% vs 15.8% Germans vs 24.3% others, p ≤ 0.05). Booster vaccination was reported more by Germans (60.5% vs 43.6% Hungarians vs 36.0% others, p ≤ 0.05). Germans were more likely to report being unvaccinated (3.7% vs 0.9% Hungarians, p ≤ 0.05). More medical students of other nationalities were unaware of their pertussis vaccination status (37.4% vs 20.0% Germans/ 16.5% Hungarians, p ≤ 0.05). 75.2% (n = 1931) rated pertussis vaccinations as absolutely necessary (86.2% Hungarians vs 69.8% Germans/ 66.1% others, p ≤ 0.05).ConclusionsPositive attitudes towards vaccinations were reported but a large group reported insufficient vaccination status and being not aware of their status, especially among international students. Hungarians possibly have a better vaccination status than reported, based on mandatory vaccinations in childhood. The low awareness of vaccination status has implications for future booster vaccinations. All students should be informed about current recommendations and receive vaccination offers in frames of low-threshold medical services.

Prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in students: A global systematic review

“…5 Even prior to the pandemic vaccine hesitancy due to social and behavioral influences was identified as health threat 5 and this concern is growing for COVID-19 vaccination because vaccine acceptance and hesitancy remarkably varied among various population sub-groups, with substantial regional variability. 6 Worldwide, the low vaccine uptake intention or hesitancy towards a particular vaccine has been recognized the most common phenomenon among the student groups in previous vaccination programs such as for influenza vaccination, [7][8][9][10][11] human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination, [12][13][14][15][16] hepatitis B vaccinations, 17,18 pertussis vaccinations, 19 HIV vaccinations, 20 measles vaccinations, 21 and now COVID-19 vaccinations. 22 In context of current COVID-19 pandemic, most of the review studies on vaccine hesitancy were conducted by analyzing the general population sample [23][24][25][26][27][28][29] and few emphasized the regional locations.…”

Estimating vaccine confidence levels among healthcare students and staff of a tertiary institution in South Africa: protocol of a cross-sectional survey

“…Vaccine attitudes of HCWs have been investigated in diverse contexts and places, 19 23-26 and similar studies have been carried out among medical students and HCWs in training. [27][28][29][30][31][32] However, few studies have reported on vaccine attitudes among HCWs in training and their trainers together. This underscores the need for such a study as this one that proposes to estimate the vaccine confidence index among both subsets of the HCW population.…”

Alarm Thresholds for Pertussis Outbreaks in Iran: National Data Analysis

“…Despite global vaccination against pertussis, the reported number of cases are increasing, and it can be considered as a reemerging infectious disease [ 3 , 4 ]. Although pertussis can occur in all age groups, infants less than 6 months have the highest morbidity due to infection [ 5 – 7 ]. Clinical symptoms of pertussis are highly dependent upon the age of the patient and the resilience of their immune system [ 8 , 9 ].…”

“…Despite global vaccination against pertussis, the reported number of cases are increasing, and it can be considered as a reemerging infectious disease [3,4]. Although pertussis can occur in all age groups, infants less than 6 months have the highest morbidity due to infection [5][6][7].…”