Miedo y creencias sobre la vacunación en docentes de enseñanza obligatoria durante la pandemia por COVID-19

Abstract

Background: Schools can help to restore confidence in vaccines by providing reliable information to their students. To do this, teachers must be willing to convey a pro-vaccination message. In this context, know the fear and beliefs about vaccination of the teachers may be appropriate.

Methods: An online cross-sectional study was carried out, in December 2020, on active teachers from the autonomous community of Catalonia (Spain). The sample included 1507 subjects, men (23.4%) and women (76.6%), aged 21 to 66 years, from preschool (21.1%), primary (41.9%) and secondary (37%) levels. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Vaccination Fear Scale VFS-6, and a questionnaire on vaccines and vaccination beliefs were administered. Univariate and descriptive data analysis was performed.

Results: In this study, only 45.3% of the teachers did not show vaccination fear; data consistent with a high proportion of teachers who did not believe they should be vaccinated (27.3%) or who hesitate about the need to do so (24.4%), regardless of the high perception of the disease severity or belonging to a risk group. With high percentages (>50%) of teachers who did not believe, or doubt, about the safety and usefulness of vaccines; and less significant but important percentages that indicated distrust in pharmaceutical companies and in the government. Being a woman, young and a preschool education teacher, followed by primary education, were risk factors for vaccination refusal.

Conclusions: The study shows high rates of fear and mistrust towards vaccines in teachers.