Percepción de la comunidad de estudiantes de pregrado de la Universidad del Azuay frente a una vacuna para el SARS-CoV 2

BACKGROUND: To date, there are no specific standardized treatments for SARS-COV2 infection hence, the importance of all the efforts focused during this pandemic on the development of vaccines against this infectious agent; however, public acceptance of a licensed vaccine has multiple challenges. The aim of this study was to determine the perception of the undergraduate students at Universidad del Azuay to opt for a vaccine against SARS-CoV2. METHODS: Descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study. An electronic survey was applied, between the months of January and February 2021, to a sample of 1 497 students enrolled in the 2020-2021 school year who agreed to participate. The survey contains 11 questions on sociodemographic data and characteristics of the participants and 6 questions on the perception of different aspects of the vaccine. The Chi-Square test was applied between the variables, with a confidence level of 95%. RESULTS: The acceptance of the participants for a free vaccine against SARS-CoV2 was 76.4%, this percentage of acceptance varies to 58.1% if the vaccine had a cost of 50 US dollars. Acceptance of a physician-recommended immunization process was 78%. 75.3% of the students believed that it is important to vaccinate people with comorbidities. 58% of students thought that the vaccines would be effective and 50.6% of those surveyed said that the vaccines would meet quality standards. CONCLUSION: Most of the participants would accept a vaccine against SARS-CoV2; acceptance increases if there is a recommendation from medical personnel and decreases if the vaccine has a cost. A statistically significant association was found between the acceptance of the vaccine and the following variables: sex, age, school, residence, income, type of work, social security affiliation, source of information on COVID-19, otherprevious vaccinations, previous infection with COVID-19.