Association between the level of knowledge about COVID-19 and attitudes towards vaccination in Health Sciences students

Introduction: In Peru, COVID-19 is a topic of interest for public health since it negatively impacts at a social, economic and psychological level. According to the WHO, 769 369 823 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported and up to August 2023 there have been inoculated a total of 13.492.225.267 doses of vaccines. Objective: To determine if there is an association between knowledge about COVID-19 and the attitude towards vaccination in students of the "Faculty of Health Sciences" of the "Universidad Científica del Sur", Lima-Perú. Methods: An observational-analytical-cross-sectional study was carried out, which sought to analyze knowledge about COVID-19, using a questionnaire designed by the researchers Ortega Paredes et al. and attitudes towards vaccination using the magazine scale by Abdul Mannan et al. The data was analyzed in the OpenEpi version 3 program. Results: 576 health sciences students were surveyed, 20,49% were male, the average age was 21,3 with a standard deviation of 5,93 years. In relation to the knowledge variable about COVID-19, only 4,17% had little knowledge. It was evaluated using a scale with 15 questions with a maximum score of 24. On average, the attitude score towards vaccination was 3,80 with a standard deviation of 1,66. It was evaluated using a nine-question scale, the scale score ranged from 0, which means a totally negative attitude, and nine, meaning a totally positive attitude. Discussion: In conclusion, in a model adjusted for sociodemographic variables and knowledge about unproven therapies on COVID-19, we found that adequate knowledge about the disease is associated with higher average scores for attitudes towards vaccination, for which we consider it important to impart adequate knowledge about COVID-19 to promote better attitudes towards vaccination against this disease, which will continue to be a respiratory infection in which doctors must take into account..