Türkiye’deki Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Covid-19 Aşısı Sonrası Bireysel Koruyucu Tutumlarındaki Süreklilik ve Gelişme

Year 2024, Volume: 10 Issue: 2, 351 - 358, 01.05.2024

Demet Ekin Ekrem Acar Rahime Nurbanu Bakır Gulam Hekimoğlu

https://doi.org/10.53394/akd.1299497

Abstract

Amaç:
Aşılama, bireylerin sağlığının korunmasında ve bulaşıcı hastalıkların önlenmesinde en önemli ve en etkili tedavilerden biridir. Günümüzde küresel bir salgın olarak kabul edilen koronavirüs hastalığı 2019 (Covid-19) ile mücadelede etkili ve güvenli aşılama oldukça önemlidir. Aşı stratejilerinin oluşturulması, aşı çalışmalarının başlatılması ve sürdürülmesi pandeminin sona erdirilmesinde son derece etkilidir. Ayrıca bireysel önleyici tutumların ve bunların dinamik değişiminin toplumda Covid-19'un yayılmasını önlemede etkili olduğu bilinmektedir.
Gereç ve Yöntemler:
Bu çalışmada, Türk üniversitelerinde toplam 499 öğrenci, aşılama öncesi ve sonrası Covid-19 enfeksiyonu bilgileri ve bireysel koruyucu tutumları hakkında çevrimiçi bir anket doldurdu.
Bulgular:
Ankete katılanların %94,8'i aşılanmıştır. Virüs bulaşması hakkında daha iyi bilgi sahibi olması beklenen öğrencilerin çoğu daha iyi rapor verdi. Üniversite öğrencileri, aşılamadan sonra bile benzer sayıda günlük el yıkamaya devam etti. Ancak aşı sonrası maske takma oranı arttı. Üniversite öğrencileri aşı öncesi Covid-19 enfeksiyonundan oldukça korktular, aşı sonrası korku duyguları önemli ölçüde azaldı ve rahatladılar.
Sonuç:
Türk üniversite öğrencileri aşılama sonrası bireysel koruyucu tutumlarını korumuş ve geliştirmiştir, bu nedenle aşılamaya ek olarak bireysel koruyucu tutumların yeni varyant virüs dalgalarında potansiyel enfeksiyon riskini azaltabileceği varsayılmaktadır.

Keywords

Covid-19, Aşı, Bireysel Koruyucu Tutumlar

Continuity and Improvement In the Individual Preventive Attitudes of University Students In Turkey After the Covid-19 Vaccination

Abstract

Aim:
Vaccination is one of the most important and effective treatments for protecting the health of individuals and preventing infectious diseases. Effective and safe vaccination is very important in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which is accepted as a global epidemic today. Establishing vaccination strategies and initiating and maintaining vaccination studies are extremely effective in ending the pandemic. In addition, it is known that individual preventive attitudes and their dynamic change are effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 in society. This study aims to evaluate the changes in individual protective attitudes of Turkish university students post-vaccination compared to pre-vaccination.
Material and Methods:
In this study, a total of 499 students at Turkish universities completed an online questionnaire about their knowledge of Covid-19 infection and individual preventive attitudes pre-and post-vaccination.
Results:
94.8% of the respondents were vaccinated. Most of the students who were expected to have better knowledge about virus transmission gave better self-reports. University students kept a similar number of daily handwashing even after vaccination. However, the rate of wearing masks increased post-vaccination. University students were quite afraid of Covıd-19 infection pre-vaccination, and they were relieved, the feelings of fear were significantly reduced post-vaccination.
Conclusion:
Turkish university students maintained and improved their protective attitudes after vaccination, so it is hypothesized that individual protective attitudes in addition to vaccination might reduce the potential risk of infection in new variant virus waves.

Keywords

Covid-19, Vaccine, Individual Preventive Attitudes

Thanks

May 19, 2023 Dear Editor, Enclosed is our original manuscript entitled “Continuity and improvement in the individual protective attitudes of university students in Turkey even after the Covid-19 vaccination” by Demet Ekin, Ekrem Acar, Rahime Nurbanu Bakır, Gulam Hekimoglu, for consideration of publication in Akdeniz Medical Journal . Effective and safe vaccination is very important in the fight against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which is accepted as a global epidemic today. Establishing vaccination strategies, initiating and maintaining vaccination studies are extremely effective in ending the pandemic. In addition, it is known that individual preventive attitudes and their dynamic change are effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 in society. In this study, a total of 499 students at Turkish universities completed an online questionnaire about their knowledge of Covid-19 enfection and individual preventive attitudes pre-and post-vaccination. 94.8% of the respondents were vaccinated. Most of the students who were expected to have better knowledge about virus transmission gave better self-report. University students kept the similar number of daily handwashing even after vaccination. However, the rate of wearing masks was increased post-vaccination. University students were quite afraid of Covıd-19 infection pre-vaccination, and they were relieved, the feelings of fear were significantly reduced post-vaccination. Turkish university students maintained and improved their individual protective attitudes after vaccination, so it is hypothesized that individual protective attitudes in addition to vaccination might reduce the potential risk of infection in new variant virus waves. All authors have read and approved the submission of this manuscript. There are no financial or other relations that could lead to a conflict of interest. This manuscript represents original material, none of which has been published elsewhere, under simultaneous consideration for publication elsewhere nor submitted elsewhere until a decision is made by Akdeniz Medical Journal. Thank you in advance for your consideration. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely yours, Gulam Hekimoglu Department of Histology and Embryology Hamidiye International School of Medicine University of Health Sciences, Istanbul 34668, Turkey Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail]

References

• 1. Umakanthan S, Sahu P, Ranade AV, Bukelo MM, Rao JS, Abrahao-Machado LF, Dahal S, Kumar H, KV D. Origin, transmission, diagnosis and management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Postgraduate medical journal 2020; 96: 753-8.
• 2. Bulut C, Kato Y. Epidemiology of COVID-19. Turkish journal of medical sciences 2020; 50: 563-70.
• 3. Kampf G, Todt D, Pfaender S, Steinmann E. Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents. Journal of hospital infection 2020; 104: 246-51.
• 4. Tellier R, Li Y, Cowling BJ, Tang JW. Recognition of aerosol transmission of infectious agents: a commentary. BMC infectious diseases 2019; 19: 1-9.
• 5. Bayar AA, Günçavdı Ö, Levent H. Evaluating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on unemployment, income distribution, and poverty in Turkey. Economic Systems 2022; 101046.
• 6. Perez JL, Marc GP, Polack FP, Zerbini C, Bailey R, Swanson KA, Xu X, Roychoudhury S, Koury K, Bouguermouh S, Kalina WV, Cooper D, Frenck RW, Hammitt LL, Türeci Ö, Nell H, Schaefer A, Ünal S, Yang Q, Liberator P, Tresnan DB, Mather S, Dormitzer PR, Şahin U, Gruber WC, Jansen KU. Safety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine through 6 months. New England Journal of Medicine 2021; 385:1761-73.
• 7. Wang PW, Ahorsu DK, Lin CY, Chen IH, Yen CF, Kuo YJ, Griffiths MD, Pakpour AH. Motivation to have COVID-19 vaccination explained using an extended protection motivation theory among university students in China: the role of information sources. Vaccines 2021; 9: 380.
• 8. Mathieu E, Ritchie H, Ortiz-Ospina E, Roser M, Hasell J, Appel C, Giattino C,Rodés-Guirao L. A global database of COVID-19 vaccinations. Nature human behavior 2021; 5: 947-53.
• 9. Nishimi K, Borsari B, Marx BP, Rosen RC, Cohen BE, Woodward E, Maven D, Tripp P, Jiha A, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A. Clusters of COVID-19 protective and risky behaviors and their associations with the pandemic, socio-demographic, and mental health factors in the United States. Preventive Medicine Reports 2022; 25:101671.
• 10. Jadil Y, Ouzir M. Exploring the predictors of health-protective behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-country comparison. Environmental Research 2021; 199:111376.
• 11. Khan AJ, Nishimi K, Tripp P, Maven D, Jiha A, Woodward E, Inslicht S, Richards A, Neylan TC, Maguen S, O'Donovan A. COVID-19 related moral injury: Associations with pandemic-related perceived threat and risky and protective behaviors. Journal of Psychiatric Research 2021; 142: 80-8.
• 12. Vally Z. Public perceptions, anxiety and the perceived efficacy of health-protective behaviors to mitigate the spread of the SARS-Cov-2/COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health 2020; 187: 67-73.
• 13. Moghadas SM, Fitzpatrick MC, Sah P, Pandey A, Shoukat A, Singer BH, Galvani AP. The implications of silent transmission for the control of COVID-19 outbreaks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2020; 117(30):17513-5.
• 14. Ding Y, Du X, Li Q, Zhang M, Zhang Q, Tan X, Liu Q. Risk perception of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its related factors among college students in China during quarantine. PloS one 2020; 15: e0237626.
• 15. Chesser A, Drassen Ham A, Keene Woods N. Assessment of COVID-19 knowledge among university students: implications for future risk communication strategies. Health Education & Behavior 2020; 47: 540-43.
• 16. Elhadi M, Msherghi A, Alsoufi A, Buzreg A, Bouhuwaish A, Khaled A, Alhadi A, Alameen H, Biala M,1 Elgherwi A, Elkhafeefi F, Elmabrouk A, Abdulmalik A, Alhaddad S, Khaled A, Elgzairi M. Knowledge, preventive behavior and risk perception regarding COVID-19: a self-reported study on college students. The Pan African Medical Journal 2020; 35(Suppl 2): 75.
• 17. Zhang M, Li Q, Du X, Zuo D, Ding Y, Tan X, Liu Q. Health behavior toward COVID-19: the role of demographic factors, knowledge, and attitude among Chinese college students during the quarantine period. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health 2020; 32: 533-35.
• 18. Cohen AK, Hoyt LT, Nichols CR, Yazdani N, Dotson MP. Opportunities to reduce young adult college students’ COVID-19-related risk behaviors: Insights from a national, longitudinal cohort. Journal of Adolescent Health 2021; 69: 383-9.
• 19. Zhang N, Liu X, Jin T, Zhao P, Miao D, Lei H, Su B, Xue P, Xie J, Li Y. Weakening personal protective behavior by Chinese university students after COVID-19 vaccination. Building and environment 2021; 206:108367.
• 20. Liu T, He Z, Huang J, Yan N, Chen Q, Huang F, Zhang Y, Akinwunmi OM, Akinwunmi BO, Zhang CJP, Wu Y, Ming WK. A comparison of vaccine hesitancy of COVID-19 vaccination in China and the United States. Vaccines 2021; 9: 649.
• 21. Li Y. Hypothesis: SARS‐CoV‐2 transmission is predominated by the short‐range airborne route and exacerbated by poor ventilation. Indoor Air 2021; 31: 921.
• 22. Levkovich I, Shinan-Altman S. The impact of gender on emotional reactions, perceived susceptibility, and perceived knowledge about COVID-19 among the Israeli public. International Health 2021; 13: 555-61.
• 23. Attar MA, Tekin-Koru A. Latent social distancing: Identification, causes, and consequences. Economic Systems 2022;46: 100944.
• 24. Baldwin R, Di Mauro BW. Economics in the time of COVID-19: A new eBook. VOX CEPR Policy Portal 2020; 6: 2-3.
• 25. Iacobucci G. COVID-19: single vaccine dose is 33% effective against a variant from India, data show. BMJ 2021; 373: n1346.