Willingness to Receive the Influenza A(H1N1) Vaccine and its Determinants among University Students during the 2009 Outbreak in Turkey.

Objective: The study aimed to determine the willingness to receive the Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine and its determinants in a large group of university students.

Materials And Methods: This is a self-administered questionnairre based cross-sectional study. Students being educated at health and non-health faculties were invited to participate in this attitude survey.

Results: A total of 974 students were included in the study, of whom 51.3% (n=500) were in health related faculties. The rate of willingness to receive the Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine was 11.9 and 7.5% for health and non-health groups, respectively (p<0.05). For the health group, having been vaccined with seasonal influenza was a significant determinant of being willingness to receive the Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine (O.R [95% C.I.]), (O.R: 2.9 [1.5-5.6]) and to believe that the Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine prevents swine flu (O.R: 1.7 [1.09-2.8]). For the non-health group, the only determinant was to believe that Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine prevents from swine flu (O.R: 19.1 [5.7-64.1]) which found to be affected by confusing news in media.

Conclusion: The public health professionals who will organize the efforts to improve the acceptability of Influenza A vaccines during influenza outbreaks should try to increase the vaccination rates of seasonal influenza. Information provided by the media should be organized in order not to cause fear and confusion, which was shown to decrease willingness and belief in the Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine.