Understanding medical students' practices and perceptions towards vaccination in China: A qualitative study in a medical university

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Educational Gaps About Vaccination in Chinese Medical Students and Residents: A Pilot Study from a Single Tertiary Referral Center

Objective

Physicians play a key role in vaccination advocacy. To explore potential educational gaps, we surveyed the knowledge and opinions on vaccination, as well as their own vaccination status, among Chinese medical students and residents in a single medical institute.

Methods

We recruited sixth- and seventh-year medical students and internal medicine residents to carry out this investigation. All participants were given a questionnaire to fill out.

Results

In total, 118 responses from medical students (n=75) and residents (n=43) were analyzed. Thus, 58.5% of participants (69/118) declared that they had enough knowledge, and 68.6% (81/118) wanted to learn more. The average knowledge score was 15.3±2.4 (the full mark was 21 points), while the average accuracy rate was 72.9%. Most respondents agreed that vaccines are useful and that the national vaccination program is effective. Although nearly all participants supported the importance of revaccination, only 48.3% had actually received boosters. There were no significant differences in knowledge and general attitude between medical students and residents. Vaccine uptake in childhood was good. With regard to the 12 vaccines other than the national standard immunization program, the most frequently declared vaccine was against coronavirus disease 2019 (89.8%), while 55.1% had received the human papillomavirus vaccine. There were no significant differences in vaccination coverage between medical students and residents, except for varicella vaccine (40% in medical students vs 18.6% in residents, p=0.017).

Conclusion

A large proportion of medical students and residents in this tertiary referral center exhibited attitudes that favored vaccine acceptance. However, there are certain gaps in their knowledge of and attitudes toward vaccination, which could be addressed by implementing a formal standardized vaccine curriculum.

Vaccine attitudes among young adults in Asia: a systematic review

Introduction: Young adults may be facing growing threats from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). However, vaccination of young adults may not have drawn adequate attention. In Asia, adensely populated region with ahigh proportion of low-income countries, VPDs impose more of an economic and social burden than in western countries. However, knowledge about attitudes toward vaccines among young Asians is limited. This study aims to fill that gap by describing attitudes toward vaccines and how well they are accepted among young Asian adults through asystematic review of relevant Chinese and English publications.Methods: A three-stage searching strategy was adopted to identify eligible studies published during 2009-2019 according to the selection criteria, resulting in 68 articles being included.Results: The review finds that vaccination coverage among young Asians is generally lower than among their western peers, and there is a lack of relevant study in many Asian countries. Factors influencing young Asians' attitudes toward vaccines are categorized into contextual level, individual and social level, and vaccine-specific level.Conclusion: These suggest that there is a need to strengthen young adults' vaccination programs and to promote vaccine-related information and government.

Vaccination of Chinese health-care workers calls for more attention

Though China's health-care workers (HCWs) had totaled as many as 12.3 million by the end of 2018, vaccination rates among them are still low or just moderate. There are few vaccination programs specifically for them. Neither targeted systematic recommendations nor effective incentives are in place. The HCWs also have some knowledge or awareness gap in vaccination. Moreover, HCWs' exposure to and infection risk of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) mount up, as a great number of unvaccinated Chinese patients crowd in a few large hospitals. So does the chance of a nosocomial VPDs outbreak. Therefore, receiving vaccines is an essential part of infection prevention and control for HCWs. China should pay more attention to the challenges and take substantial measures to address it in the "Healthy China" agenda.