Assessment of undergraduate student knowledge, attitude, and practices towards COVID-19 in Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease that has caused a global pandemic. As of July 2020, there were 8,475 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ethiopia, and a total of 52 cases and 1 death were reported in Debre Berhan where this study was conducted. Under these conditions, we sought to assess what undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University knew about COVID-19 and how it shaped their attitudes and practices regarding this disease. Objective The aim of the current study was to assess undergraduate student knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 in Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March 18–24, 2020 among undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University. A two-stage cluster sampling technique was employed with a total sample size of 634. Proportional allocation of samples was used to the randomly selected colleges, and a systematic random sampling technique was employed to recruit the students. The data were checked for completeness, coded, entered into Epi-Data VS 3.1, and then exported into STATA™ Version 14 software for analysis. Descriptive statistics were conducted. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors. Factors were selected with the entry method. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the associations between variables and knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP). Results From a total of 546 included participants, more than half of them, 307 (57%) were males. Seventy-three percent of them heard about novel coronavirus from social media. In this study, 73.8% of the participants were knowledgeable, and their overall attitude was favorable. Approximately 71.4% correctly responded that the main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Nearly half, 229 (42%) of the students approved that they had no concern of being infected with COVID-19. Moreover, most participants showed poor practices; more than half of the study subjects were not maintaining a physical distance. In multivariable analyses, people older than 25 years (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI; 1.2, 4.6) and those who lived in urban areas (AOR = 4.3, 95% CI; 2.6, 15.8) were significantly more knowledgeable about COVID-19. Furthermore, those students that have information about COVID-19 (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI; 1.6, 8.7) was significantly associated with the attitude undergraduate students had about COVID-19 as compared with its counterpart. Conclusion The undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University were moderately knowledgeable about COVID-19 and had an optimistic attitude towards its resolution. However, this optimism may lead to poor public health practices within this community. Therefore, greater efforts need to be made through more comprehensive and directed actions and awareness campaigns to increase the knowledge, attitude and practice of the students.

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 among secondary school students in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia

“…Online information becomes one of the principal and rapid ways to obtain information, compared with other resources [ 23 ]. The result of this study are consistent with those studies conducted in Egypt [ 30 ] and Ethiopia [ 26 ] that reported internet and social media as a main source of information. Against other media, newspaper, religious and community leaders, and heath extension workers appears to be a less favored option for gathering knowledge about the disease.…”

“…The good knowledge of students towards COVID-19 in this study might be due to the late confirmed case report of COVID-19 in Ethiopia, which might provide adequate time to know about the disease. Besides, the WHO declaration of the disease as a pandemic might also have increased the students’ knowledge [ 26 , 27 ]. Effective education by the WHO and the Ethiopian government and also active information seeking of students about COVID-19 from various channels of information and the official website of the Ministry of health of Ethiopia might contribute to good knowledge of students about COVID-19.…”

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among college students in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The findings of this meta-analysis showed that the pooled proportion of college students’ knowledge of COVID-19 was 74%, which is similar to the findings reported by Aynalem YA et al [ 59 ]. The results of subgroup analysis showed that the pooled proportion of Chinese college students’ mastery of COVID-19-related knowledge had gradually increased over time, and female and medical college students had a higher level of knowledge towards COVID-19.…”

Application of Health Belief Model for the assessment of COVID-19 preventive behavior and its determinants among students: A structural equation modeling analysis

“…Only 97 (26.2%), 121 (32.7%), and 108 (29.2%) of students had good practice regarding physical distance, frequent hand washing, and facemask use respectively. These results are lower than the findings reported by different previous studies [ 15 , 16 , 26 , 29 ]. The discrepancy may be explained by the fact that previous studies were conducted at the beginning of the introduction of COVID-19 when everybody was scared and had taken preventive measures aggressively.…”

“…For example, 74.5% of students wear a facemask and 85% of students washed their hands frequently in Bangladesh [ 12 ], 80.0% of students adopted social isolation strategies, regular hand washing, and enhanced personal hygiene measures in Jordan [ 13 ] and more than 94% of students were following the recommended preventive health behaviors in Iran [ 14 ]. On the other hand, few studies among Ethiopian university students have shown unsatisfactory compliance behavior of students towards COVID 19 preventive measures, where only 56% of students keep their physical distance, 74% wash their hands frequently [ 15 , 16 ].…”