The relationship between Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University students' views on COVİD-19 vaccine with factors affecting vaccination status and fear of COVID-19 disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University students' view of Covid-19 vaccines and their vaccination status with fear of Covid-19 disease. Our study was conducted with 2000 university students randomly selected from the students studying at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University online between 15.01.2022 and 15.02.2022. A sociodemographic data form consisting of 32 questions and a 7-question Coronavirus Fear Scale (CFS) were applied to the participants of the study. The data collected in the research were evaluated with the SPSS 25.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 25) program. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. 494 people participated in the study. Of the students participating in the study, 354 (71,7%) were female and 140 (28,3%) were male. While the mean CFS score of female students was 17,03±5,71, the mean CFS score of men was 13,62±5,19 (p<0.001). While 449 (90,9%) of the participants stated that they were vaccinated, 25 (5,1%) stated that they were undecided/wanted to be, and 20 (4,1%) definitely would not. Considering the vaccination rates of the participants, 96,3% of those studying at medical faculties, 91,3% of those studying at other health faculties and 84,9% of other faculties were vaccinated, and a significant difference was found between these groups (p=0.002). For the Covid-19 pandemic to come to an end, it is necessary to ensure herd immunity. For this, it is necessary to increase the desire of people to be vaccinated, to determine the reasons for vaccine hesitancy, to provide adequate information about these reasons, and to eliminate the fears of individuals about the disease first. Vaccination acceptance of the young population, that is, students, who have an important place in the way of creating a healthy society in the future, is important. Keywords: Covid-19, Pandemics, Fear, Vaccines