General attitudes toward and awareness of vaccines among students at a university in Northern Cyprus

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the students

	Number	Percentage %
Gender  Female  Male	173 154	52.9 47.1
Age  18–20  21–23  24–26  >26	158 110 37 22	48.3 33.6 11.3 6.7
Nationalty  Turkish Cypriot  Turkish  Arab  African  Iranian  European  Azeri  Other  Missing	111 90 44 53 13 6 6 2 2	33.9 27.5 13.4 16.2 3.9 1.8 1.8 0.6 0.6
Origins of birth  Village  Town with less than 200,000 population  City with less than 1,000,000 population  City with more than 1,000,000 population	45 62 108 112	13.8 19 33 34.3
Religion  Muslim  Christions  Jewish  Deist  Atheist  Other	233 34 4 21 15 20	71.3 10.4 1.2 6.4 4.6 6.1
Year of the study  First year  Second year  Third year  Fourth year	80 94 53 70	24.5 28.7 16.2 21.4
Post-graduate	30	9.2
Faculty  Business and Economics  Education  Communication and Media Studies	119 151 57	36.4 46.1 17.4

Table 2. General knowledge and attitudes toward vaccination, immunization, and anti-vaccine movement of the students

	Number	Percentage %
Do you know what an anti-vaccination movement is?  Yes What is your opinion about the anti-vaccination movement?  Rather bad  Definitely bad  Ambiguous  Rather good  Definitely good	143 36 32 43 17 15	44 25.1 22.3 30.1 11.8 10.4
Has anyone ever tried to convince you that vaccination is harmful?  Yes Students who are exposed to anti-vaccination propaganda  Originated from a village  Originated from town  Originated from a small city  Originated from a big city	80 4 15 26 40	24.7 8.9 16.4 24.3 36
Do you know any consequences of a decrease in the percentage of vaccinated people?  Yes	55	16.8
Will you vaccinate your children?  No Reason for not-vaccinating  Risk of advers effect  Vaccines do not work  Getting ill is better	37 17 16 4	11.4
		45.9 43.2 10.8
How common are adverse effects of vaccination?  1 person in 10,000  1 person in 100,000  1 person in 1,000,000	86 73 75	30.6 26 26.7
Percentage of the population should get vaccinated to sustain herd immunity  80%  85%  90%  100%	65 73 61 49	20.8 19.5 23.3 19.5
Do you agree that the post-disease immunity persists longer than the post-vaccination immunity?  Yes  I have no opinion	102 78	31.6 55.1

Table 3. The students’ opinions on vaccines according to the faculty variable

	Business and Economics Faculty (n = 119)	Communication and Media Studies Faculty (n = 57)	Education Faculty (n = 151)	p
Will you vaccinate your children?  Yes, n(%)	107 (91.5)	49(86)	132(87.4)	0.46
Do you think that parents who do not vaccinate their children should be penalized?  No, n(%)	30 (26.3)	17 (29.8)	76 (50.1)	0.008*
Has anyone ever tried to convince you that vaccination is harmful?  Yes, n(%)	36(30.8)	14(25)	30(20)	0.121
Do you think thiomersal containing vaccine is dangerous?  Yes, n(%)	57(49.6)	27(48.2)	88(59.5)	0.17
Do you know what an anti-vaccination movement is?  Yes, n(%)	47(40.2)	23(40.4)	73(48.3)	0.33
Would you get vaccinated, if there is an effective vaccine against new coronavirus?  Yes, n(%)	77(64.7)	32(56.1)	89(60)	0.002^#

*The majority of the participants studying in the Faculty of Education thought that parents who could not vaccinate their children should not be punished, but this rate was significantly lower among students of the Faculty of Business and students of the Media Faculty (p = 0.008). # The proportion of wanted to get vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 was significantly lower among the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies students (p = 0.002).

Table 4. The students’ opinions on vaccination according to the nationality variable

	Turkish Cypriot	Turkish	Arabic	Iranian	African	p
Will you vaccinate your children?  Yes, n(%)	96(86.5)	80(88.9)	39(88.6)	12(92.3)	46(90.2)	0,26
Has anyone ever tried to convince you that vaccination is harmful?  Yes, n(%)	13(11.7)	24(26.7)	13(29.5)	4(30.8)	19(38.0)	0.01*
Do you think thiomersal containing vaccine is dangerous?  Yes, n(%)	63(58.3)	57(64.8)	15(34.1)	6(46.2)	22(44.0)	0.01^#
Do you know what an anti-vaccination movement is?  Yes, n(%)	46(41.4)	42(46.7)	19(43.2)	8(61.5)	24(47.1)	0.66
Would you get vaccinated, if there is an effective vaccine against new coronavirus?  Yes, n(%)	63(56.8)	54(60)	27(61.4)	8(61.5)	37(69.8)	0.59

* Turkish Cypriot students were less exposed to anti-vaccination propaganda than Turkish, Arabs, Iranians and Africans (p = 0.01). ^#The majority of students considered vaccines containing thimerosal to be dangerous; this rate was significantly higher among the participants from Northern Cyprus and Turkey than among those from African countries, Arab countries, and Iran (p = 0.01).