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. 2022 Aug 9;19(16):9779.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19169779.

Students' Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination: An Inter-University Study from Bulgaria

Martina Moskova  1   2 , Anelia Zasheva  3 , Metodi Kunchev  4 , Ivan Popivanov  5 , Dimo Dimov  6 , Virsavia Vaseva  7 , Todor Kundurzhiev  8 , Ilia Tsachev  9 , Magdalena Baymakova  3
Affiliations

Students' Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination: An Inter-University Study from Bulgaria

Martina Moskova et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

In Bulgaria, vaccination coverage against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is low. The reasons for this fact are many and varied. The aim of the present study was to establish what the attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccination process are among students from various specialties from several Bulgarian universities. In this research, 600 students participated, divided into two groups: Doctor of Medicine (MD) students (n = 300) and non-MD students, i.e., students of specialties, such as mathematics, engineering, finance and economics, law, human sciences, etc. (n = 300). Each respondent completed a questionnaire which was divided into three parts with closed questions. The mean age of all students was 21.19 ± 1.87 years (95% CI: 20.48−21.90). The female sex dominated among the analyzed participants (sex ratio: female/male = 1/0.85). Nearly 62% (371/600) of individuals declared that they have been COVID-19 vaccinated with at least one dose (p < 0.001). Overall, 33% of the participants sought information on vaccines from video sharing platforms and 36.0% (216/600) from social media platforms. From the conducted multivariable logistic regression the odds of vaccination against COVID-19 were 6.225 times higher in individuals with a positive attitude towards these vaccines than in people with a negative attitude towards them (p < 0.001). We have found that those students who trust the international health organizations had an OR of 2.365 (p = 0.004) to be SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated. We estimated that the odds of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 among children were 4.794 times higher in parents (students) who had been vaccinated than in non-vaccinated parents (students) (p < 0.001). Our results could support the national public health organizations, the national educational/scientific systems, and the management of Bulgarian universities in making future decisions about the field of COVID-19 control and prevention.

Keywords: Bulgaria; COVID-19; questionnaire-based survey; students; vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict to interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Geographic location of the Bulgarian universities from which there were respondents in the present study (in red).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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