Joerg Klewer, MD PhD¹, Laura Sasnauskaite², Francisco Guillen-Grima³, Ines Aguinaga-Ontoso³, and Joachim Kugler, MD PhD¹. (1) Public Health, Dresden Medical School, IMIB-Fetscherstr. 74, Dresden, 01307, Germany, 0049-351-3177217, Joklewer@aol.com, (2) Dept. of Microbiology, Kaunas Medical University, Mickeviciaus 9, Kaunas, 3000, Lithuania, (3) Dept. of Health Sciences, University of Navarre, Avda Baranain s/n, Pamplona, 31008, Spain

Introduction: Health professionals are responsible to provide the population with sufficient vaccinations. Nevertheless, until now, comparative studies about vaccination behavior in health care students from different European countries are lacking. The study analyzed vaccinations of health care students against tetanus, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A+B and tried to find possible influences on the vaccination behavior. Methods: In this European multi-center-study, 182 German medical/dental students, 70 Lithuanian medical students and 181 Spanish nursing students participated by working on an anonymous questionnaire related to demographical data, smoking/drinking habits, drug abuse and vaccinations. The response rates were 76-100%. Results: Altogether, the investigated students were not sufficiently vaccinated. Only immunization against hepatitis B covered all Spanish and 98.5% of the German dental students. In the Lithuanian and Spanish samples, 30-50% of the students did not know if they have been vaccinated sufficiently, especially against diphtheria and poliomyelitis. Gender differences, with better immunizations in female students, and reduced immunization in students abusing drugs were only found in the German sample. Nearly all investigated students regarded vaccinations as important to prevent infectious diseases. Conclusions: Considering that the European health care systems will be harmonized and controls by official authorities reduced, people have to be more responsible for their own health. Therefore, education of health care students should focus more on infectious diseases and vaccinations to optimize immunization in future health professionals. This will protect them against preventable infections. Additionally, they will be better skilled to prevent infectious diseases by educating and vaccinating the general population.

Learning Objectives:

• After the presentation the participants should be informed about the differences in vaccinations for tetanus, diphtheria, poliomyelitis and hepatitis A & B between health care students from Germany, Lithuania and Spain. The participant should also know, that even in health care students immunization still has to be improved.
• Vaccinations are very important to prevent several infectious diseases. The results point to the problem, that even in health care students recommended vaccinations still have to be improved. By presenting these results on the APHA Meeting we would like to discuss with other public health experts, how to improve immunization in health care students and in the general population. Additionally, the finding, that several health care students did not whether they were vaccinated or not, is an important issue for further investigations.

Keywords: Infectious Diseases, Disease Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.