Improvement in vaccination knowledge among health students following an integrated extra curricular intervention, an explorative study in the University of Palermo

Introduction. Vaccination coverages threaten to decreasebecause of false beliefs in their unsafety and inefficacy. Thereforeformation of future health-care workers on this topic is fundamentalto deal with any doubt and to promote active immunizationamong general population.Methods. In order to assess health-care students’ knowledgeabout vaccination before an integrated seminar on this topic, andto evaluate their improvement after the educational intervention,an integrated educational intervention was held by a multidisciplinaryteam. Before and after the seminar, 118 students of medicineand biology schools at Palermo University were asked toanswer 10 multiple-choice questions regarding vaccine history,mechanism of action, side effects, composition, use and nowadaysissues (hesitancy). Two more questions investigating possiblechanges on students’ attitudes towards vaccination and the usefulnessof the formative intervention, were added at the post-testphase of the survey.Results. Eighty-one out of 118 students (68.6%) answered to bothpre- and post-test questions. 97.6% and 81.5% of the participatinggroup also completed the two additional questions about theirimprovement in knowledge (question 11) and attitudes (question12) towards vaccinations. The post-test results showed a significantimprovement for all questions administered, except for number3 (about a specific immunological content), with an overallpercentage of correct answers increasing from 38.8% to 77.6%(p©< 0.001).Conclusions. The present explorative study put the basis forfuture studies, stronger in the methodology, and highlights theimportance of educating health-care professions students byintegrated extra-curricular intervention to be held early in theirdegree curricula and in order to improve knowledge and attitudestowards vaccinations and to prepare them to promote vaccinesamong the general population.