Wissen und Einstellungen zur Masernimpfung bei Medizinstudierenden

Background: Insufficient immunization rates among health care personnel and general public cause recurring measles outbreaks. To achieve higher immunization rates, a profound knowledge and positive attitude concerning vaccinations are needed, as well as confident vaccination consultations provided by a treating physician. As medical students in future are main contact persons for patients regarding vaccination, we analysed their attitudes towards and the knowledge about measles immunization in Munich and Dresden in order to take into account possible influences of different vaccination policies. Materials and methods: In summer term 2015, we invited medical students in their last three years of the studies (5th–10th semester) during compulsory and voluntary courses at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) to participate in our study. Results: In all, 508 students of the TUM and 216 students of the TUD could be included in our study. On average, 46.7% of the knowledge items were answered correctly at both study sites. The age of the participants seemed to have the strongest influence on the knowledge. The attitudes towards measles vaccinations were very positive at both study sites (93.1% approval on average). Neither the study site, nor the state of origin of the participants, or a previous medical education showed a significant influence on the attitude towards measles vaccination. Conclusions: The knowledge of the study participants seemed to be insufficient, although their attitudes towards measles vaccination were positive. It is important that medical students are confronted more with the topic vaccination during their studies.