Evaluation and comparison of the level of knowledge, attitude, and vaccination ratios in adult vaccination of 1st and 6th grades students at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine

Objective: İt was aimed to question the knowledge level of the first and sixth grade students of Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine about adult vaccination, to determine whether the education received in this field is sufficient or not, to evaluate the vaccination approaches and vaccination rates as a health worker in this study. Methods: Our descriptive and cross-sectional design study is carried out by discussing face to face to demographic profile of the participants with 20 items questionnaire. Provide data were analyzed by using SPSS 23.0. In comparison, Chi-square and Fisher's Exact tests analysis were used. p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: 300 medical students participated in our study. 150 (50%) of the medical students who participated in the study were 1st class medical students and 150 (50%) were 6th grade medical students. 158 (52.7%) of the medical students were male and 142 (47.3%) were female. 88 medical students (29.3%) had a history of smoking and 212 (70.7%) had no smoking history. Only 22 (7.3%) of the medical students had a chronic disease and the most common chronic disease reported was Allergic Asthma (n = 6, 2%). 48% of medical students had never been vaccinated. Flu and tetanus vaccines (72.7%, 83.3%, 65.3%, 81.3%, respectively) were the most common knowledge among the medical students of both educational levels. Tetanus (27.3%) and hepatitis b (40.7%) were the most common vaccines. The reason they did not receive adult vaccination was that they did not believe that the vaccine provided adequate protection in the first grade (7.3%) and that it was due to other reasons in the sixth grade. 32% of the first grade and 26% of the sixth grade want to be informed by the family physician about vaccinations. Conclusions: In this study, it was found that the education given about vaccines during the medical school was not sufficient and the level of knowledge and vaccination rates of the first and sixth grade medical students could not be reached to the desired target level. Key words: adult vaccination, rate, knowledge level, immunization