Vacinar ou Não? Percepção e Conhecimento entre Estudantes Universitários.

Abstract

Getting vaccinated is a necessary act for human life, and there is no other efficient way to prevent thousands of annual deaths as the vaccine protects against infectious diseases. Since the creation of the National Immunization Program, in 1973, a breakthrough in public health was reached, in fact, vaccination coverage increased over 95% whose result was the eradication of some diseases. However, in recent years, a decrease in the number of vaccinated people is happening and, consequently, the resurgence of diseases that, in another way, would have been eradicated. Thus, the objective of this work was to know the perception of young people, with emphasis on university students, about vaccination, in order to know the acceptance of vaccination including the reasons why some of them have not been vaccinated. In addition, it was possible to measure their knowledge about the subject. With the date obtained, it was found that 97.2% of students carry vaccination booklet, however, only 76.9% have the vaccines up to date. Participants mentioned common adverse reactions after taking some vaccines such as spot pain, redness and fever (≤ 38 °C). Regarding knowledge, the students got an average of 81.8% of the 22 general knowledge questions about this topic. Among respondents, 35.9% reported meeting someone who refuses to get vaccinated, mainly due to false news and misinformation about vaccines. Thus, we finished our reseach reinforcing the need for raising awareness in higher education institutions about the awareness of the vaccination act including the engagement of public agencies that may invest to improve access and availability of vaccines for the population.