American Journal of Advanced Medical & Surgical Research

AWARENESS ABOUT SEASONAL INFLUENZA VACCINE AMONG UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS IN TABUK REGION, SAUDI ARABIA

Amina Unis*, Sarah Almutairi, Marwah Almutairi, Salwa Alsayed, Abdulrahman Almutairi

aaaunis@hotmail.com

Seasonal influenza; Uptake; Medical students; barriers; Saudi Arabia.

It is suggested that achieving a high vaccine uptake in the early stages of a medical career might therefore improve subsequent influenza vaccine uptake. To explore awareness, experience and attitude towards seasonal influenza vaccination among undergraduate medical students in Tabuk region in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was carried out between March and May 2015 using an anonymous self-completed questionnaire. All medical students at Tabuk college of medicine (males and females) grades 2, 3 and 4 (n=349) were invited to participate in the study A semi structured questionnaire survey was developed and distributed hand to hand to measure the degree of awareness seasonal influenza vaccine among undergraduate medical students. The study included 301 undergraduate medical students out of invited 349 (response rate=86.2%). More than two-thirds of them (68.8%) were aware about the seasonal influenza vaccine. Almost half of them (50.7%) had their information about seasonal influenza through health campaigns whereas internet and TV were the sources of information among 22.2% and 15% of the participants, respectively. 79.1% of those students did not get the vaccine yet. Among those who vaccinated, family/friend advice (36.5%) and physician advice (33.3%) were the most reported motivators, 76.2% being vaccinated once in the last 5 years and only 7.9% reported side effects of the vaccine. Most of the participants (73.1%) believed that there is no enough community awareness of influenza vaccine, as well as 44.9% of them believed that the cause is ignorance of it `s existence or ignorance of its protective effect (33.9%), however 65.4%% of them believed on it beneficial effect on both the individual and community levels. Only 32.6% of the participants intended to take seasonal influenza vaccine next year. Although almost two-thirds of undergraduate medical students in Tabuk were aware of the existence of seasonal influenza vaccine, its uptake was much lower. Therefore there is an increase need of organization of health education campaigns in Tabuk region in order to increase the awareness about influenza vaccine and hence improve the quality of care that given to patients from the future health care workers.