Vangsness Kella L, Eklof Lillian, Moore Savannah, Coffey Todd, Evans Jessica, Sloan Richard
General Surgery, Community Memorial Hospital, Ventura, USA.
Research, Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, Meridian, USA.
Cureus. 2024 Dec 5;16(12):e75168. doi: 10.7759/cureus.75168. eCollection 2024 Dec.
The aim of this study is to investigate how demographic factors influence medical students' attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and their perceptions of vaccine education in medical school curricula.
A 28-question anonymous online survey was distributed to 640 medical students at one academic medical institution. Individual attitudes toward vaccines were evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale. Responses were tested for association with various demographic factors using the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test.
Two-hundred and forty-four responses out of 640 total surveyed revealed that 97.9% of the students had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, 68.44% supported mandatory vaccinations, 16.81% did not believe vaccination protects others from getting sick, and 66.4% supported vaccine personal choice, with men showing a statistically stronger belief than women (p=0.0046). Approximately 25.1% of the students reported not receiving sufficient vaccine education in medical school and only 12.4% of all students considered medical school curricula as their most trusted source of vaccine information. Moreover, 8.6% of the students would not encourage patients to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and 8.2% were uncomfortable discussing patients' concerns. Unvaccinated students were more likely to not encourage patients to receive the vaccine (p<0.0001) and were more inclined to believe that acquiring natural immunity was preferable to vaccination (p<0.0001). One hundred percent of very conservative students, 97.8% of slightly conservative students, and students associated with any religion displayed statistical significance in endorsing vaccine personal choice (p=<0.0001), particularly among Christians (p=<0.0001). In contrast, 28% of very liberal and 48.3% of slightly liberal students agreed (p<0.0001). Additionally, the majority of liberal students agreed vaccines prevent the spread of disease while only 75% of conservative, independent, and neutral students agreed (p<0.001).
Despite high compliance, this cohort significantly demonstrated concern toward the COVID-19 vaccine, particularly those who were unvaccinated, had conservative political associations, and belonged to certain religious groups. These findings suggest identifying factors that impede medical education and an understanding of vaccines in order to improve physician training. We recommend an expanded medical curriculum to address these issues.
本研究旨在调查人口统计学因素如何影响医学生对新冠疫苗的态度以及他们对医学院课程中疫苗教育的认知。
向一所学术医疗机构的640名医学生发放了一份包含28个问题的匿名在线调查问卷。使用5点李克特量表评估个人对疫苗的态度。使用卡方检验或费舍尔精确检验来测试回答与各种人口统计学因素之间的关联。
在总共640份调查回复中，有244份显示97.9%的学生至少接种了一剂新冠疫苗，68.44%的学生支持强制接种，16.81%的学生不认为接种疫苗能保护他人不生病，66.4%的学生支持疫苗个人选择，男性的支持率在统计学上显著高于女性（p = 0.0046）。约25.1%的学生表示在医学院没有接受足够的疫苗教育，只有12.4%的学生认为医学院课程是他们最信任的疫苗信息来源。此外，8.6%的学生不会鼓励患者接种新冠疫苗，8.2%的学生在讨论患者的担忧时感到不自在。未接种疫苗的学生更有可能不鼓励患者接种疫苗（p < 0.0001），并且更倾向于认为获得自然免疫力比接种疫苗更好（p < 0.0001）。100%的非常保守的学生、97.8%的稍微保守的学生以及与任何宗教有关联的学生在支持疫苗个人选择方面具有统计学意义（p = <0.0001），特别是在基督徒中（p = <0.0001）。相比之下，28%的非常自由派和48.3%的稍微自由派学生表示同意（p < 0.0001）。此外，大多数自由派学生同意疫苗能预防疾病传播，而只有75%的保守派、独立派和中立派学生同意（p < 0.001）。
尽管依从性较高，但这一群体对新冠疫苗仍表现出显著担忧，特别是那些未接种疫苗、具有保守政治倾向以及属于某些宗教团体的学生。这些发现表明需要识别阻碍医学教育和对疫苗理解的因素，以改善医生培训。我们建议扩大医学课程以解决这些问题。
