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Dental students’ attitudes and hesitancy toward COVID‐19 vaccine
Author(s) -
Mascarenhas Ana Karina,
Lucia Victoria C.,
Kelekar Arati,
Afonso Nelia M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/jdd.12632
Subject(s) - covid-19 , vaccination , medicine , family medicine , curriculum , health care , public health , medical education , psychology , nursing , immunology , political science , pedagogy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
Background Dentists are a group of providers who have been identified by CDC at high risk of exposure to COVID‐19 through their contact with patients. This would apply to dental students as well. Thus, it is important to achieve high COVID‐19 vaccination rates in this group. Further, as healthcare providers, they are entrusted with providing health recommendations and advocating for their patients, community, and profession, including vaccinations. Methods Using ualtrics XM an online platform, in 2020, a survey was administered anonymously to dental students at three dental schools to assess the attitudes of dental students to the novel COVID‐19 vaccine. Factors and reasons associated with vaccine hesitancy and acceptance toward the COVID‐19 vaccine and likelihood of recommending and giving the vaccination to patients were assessed. Results Nearly, all participants had positive attitudes toward vaccines in general, agreed they would likely be exposed to COVID‐19, and personally knew someone who had COVID‐19; however, only 56% are willing to take a COVID‐19 vaccine as soon as an FDA‐approved vaccine was available. Of those unwilling to take the vaccine, 63% reported they would take it if mandated by the health systems/dental school; however, 16.3% of the overall respondents would not take the COVID‐19 vaccine even if mandated. Several factors are associated with vaccine acceptance and the likelihood of recommending the vaccination, such as trusting public health experts, concerns about side effects, and agreeing with vaccine mandates. Conclusion Our results highlight the need for an educational curriculum about the safety and effectiveness to promote the uptake of COVID‐19 vaccine.