Objective In this study we aimed to assess the attitudes and practices of medical students regarding hepatitis A immunization and also adverse reactions of associated with vaccine and effect on acceptability.

Methods The study was performed on 103 medical students with ages between 20 and 26 years old. All the students vaccinated by the same nurse at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine on 14 days in December and answered a questionnaire and follow-up form.

Results The mean student age was 21.69±0.97 years. Pain with movement (58.3%) and pain with touch (38.8%) were the most common side effects at vaccination site. Despite the side effects, all of the vaccinated students wanted to receive the following dose of vaccine. Twelve of the vaccinated students (11.7 %) indicated that the reason of their vaccination was the recommendation of a pediatric infectious disease specialist. One of the major reason for not wishing vaccination was the cost for 60 of them (58.3%).

Conclusions The cost of vaccination and recommendation by infection specialist may have been important to receive hepatitis A vaccination for medical students and also may be for other health care workers.