Analysis of the impact of education level on the sense of coherence and opinion concerning carrying out preventive vaccination

Introduction. Nowadays, preventive vaccination is still the most effective method of countering and combating infectious diseases. Objective. The objective of the present study was to take into consideration the education of the respondents while learning about their views and attitudes towards both compulsory and recommended preventive vaccination in Poland. Materials and methods. An interview survey was conducted among 370 respondents – students and young parents residing in the Lublin province of eastern Poland. The research tools were an authors’ questionnaire and a Life Orientation Questionnaire (SOS-29). Results. The majority of respondents with secondary education (77.40%), undergraduate education (63.71%), and graduate education (55.07%) stated that sometimes preventive vaccination may have life-threatening consequences. A very small percentage of both groups of respondents with secondary and undergraduate education expressed the opinion that such situations often happen (1.69% vs. 1.61%), but this opinion was not shared by any of the respondents with graduate education. Analyzing the dependency between the sense of coherence and one’s level of education, a significant difference between the respondents with secondary education and undergraduate education was observed. Although differences between respondents with graduate education and respondents with undergraduate education existed, they were not very significant. Conclusions. The educational background of the respondents has an impact on their opinions on preventive vaccination. The great majority of respondents believed that vaccination is necessary in order to avoid many dangerous diseases. Respondents with graduate education evaluated preventive vaccination in a positive or a very positive way. The subjects differed in their global sense of coherence together with its components. The general sense of coherence stood at an average level, with the mean of 129.02 points. The highest results were obtained by the respondents in the area of resourcefulness, which is a belief that they had at their disposal remedial resources, including preventive vaccination.