University students’ perspectives on COVID-19 vaccination

Background and objective: Community immunity to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end will be achieved by a successful vaccination against COVID-19. All university students in Kurdistan Regional Government were required to receive the COVID-19 vaccines. The aim of this study is to identify the university students’ perspectives about the COVID-19 vaccination and their willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study using self-administered online survey was conducted among the university students from 14th to 28th February 2022. All undergraduate students at different Colleges of Hawler Medical University were invited to take part in the study. A convenience sampling method was applied to reach the sample through using Google form. Results: In total, 644 students participated in the study; around half (47.5%) of them have received the vaccine. There were significant statistical associations between selected students’ characteristics and their COVID-19 vaccination status. The following factors were associated with high rate of vaccination: students aged older than 20 years old (P = 0.01), being male (P = 0.037), senior students (P ˂0.001), being infected with the COVID-19 infection (P = 0.048), and having family members with chronic disease (P = 0.003). Conclusion: The current study revealed significant findings as the majority of students were still unvaccinated at a time where the COVID-19 vaccines were available to them. Having concern about serious side effects of the vaccine and its safety were the main reasons for vaccine avoidance, whereas, requiring students to be vaccinated by the place where they study was the main reason to take the vaccine. Future studies further exploring the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy and avoidance seems essential.