Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19 among university students in Japan and associated factors: An online cross-sectional survey

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly altered peoples’ daily lives, and it continues spreading as a crucial concern globally. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 are related to individuals’ adherence to government measures. This study evaluated KAP toward COVID-19 among university students in Japan between May 22 and July 16, 2020, via an online questionnaire, and it further investigated the associated determining KAP factors. Among the eligible respondents (n = 362), 52.8% were female, 79.0% were undergraduate students, 32.9% were students whose major university subjects were biology-related, 35.4% were from the capital region, and 83.7% were Japanese. The overall KAP of university students in Japan was high. All respondents (100%) showed they possessed knowledge on avoiding enclosed spaces, crowded areas, and close situations. Most respondents showed a moderate or higher frequency of washing their hands or wearing masks (both at 96.4%). In addition, 68.5% of respondents showed a positive attitude toward early drug administration. In the logistic regressions, gender, major subjects, education level, nationality, residence, and psychological factors (private self-consciousness and extroversion) were associated with knowledge or attitudes toward COVD-19 (p < 0.05). In the logistic and multiple linear regressions, capital regions, high basic knowledge, high information acquisition, correct information explanations contributed positively to preventative action (p < 0.05). Non-capital regions, male gender, non-bio-backgrounds, high public self-consciousness, high advanced knowledge, incorrect information explanations, and high extroversion contributed negatively to self-restraint (p < 0.05). Moreover, self-restraint was decreasing over time. These findings clarify the Japanese university students’ KAP and the related factors in the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they may help university managers, experts, and policymakers control the future spread of COVID-19 and other emerging infections.

COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices of United Arab Emirates medical and health sciences students: A cross sectional study

“…A study from 10 universities in China reported that knowledge of COVID-19 was significantly higher in public universities and among medical majors compared with in private colleges and among non-medical majors [ 22 ]. In contrast other studies from Japan [ 25 ] and India [ 32 ] did not show any differences between medical and non-medical students. The high knowledge about COVID-19 among medical and allied health students in the UAE is similar to findings reported from Japan [ 25 ], Saudi Arabia [ 24 ], Portugal [ 33 ], and Pakistan [ 23 ] (96%, 86%, 82%, 72% respectively).…”

“…University students can be a source of increased health awareness and health education not only for themselves but also for those around them as they take part in the dissemination of pandemic-related knowledge supporting the prevention and control of the pandemic [ 21 , 22 ]. Recent studies from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Japan have shown that medical students have sufficient knowledge, positive attitudes, and proactive practices during the COVID-19 crisis [ 23 – 25 ].…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Covid-19 and Associated Factors Among University Students in Mizan Tepi University, 2020

“…This contradicting with a study from Japan, where the odd of practices among students from the capital area are more likely than the counterpart. 18 This finding from the current study is suggesting that dissemination of information about Covid-19 has not brought the difference in implementation of prevention, as it is expected that living in rural is easy to access information about prevention than those living in rural.…”

“…This finding is supported by a study from Japan, where male sex is positively associated with attitude. 18 But it is opposed by a study from China. 11 None of the studies opposes or supports the rest of the predictors.…”

Impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on the health of university students

“…The available evidence suggests that this was not the case and instead demonstrates that students were well-informed and complied with the restrictions introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19. 47,48 A national Student Covid Insights Survey undertaken in the last 3 months of 2020 found that 90% of students have followed the rules and this was a similar compliance rate to that self-reported by the general population. 49 These findings paint a more positive picture of students as law-biding citizens and challenge negative portrayals of their attitudes to NPIs, despite extensive scepticism about governmental policies and behaviour.…”