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

Abstract

Background Since the outbreak of the respiratory infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus in 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic has posed a serious threat to the life and safety of the public, and has also seriously affected the normal study and life of college students in China. Although a series of studies have been conducted on college students’ knowledge, attitudes and practices of COVID-19, the results vary widely. This study aimed to evaluate the pooled estimated level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) about COVID-19 among college students in China. Methods We conducted a comprehensive search on Scopus, ProQuest, PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Database and Wanfang Database up to 13 February 2022. We then assessed the quality of included studies using a checklist developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) for cross-sectional studies and analyzed using STATA.15 after two researchers independently extracted relevant data and entered them into Microsoft Excel. Funnel plots and Egger’s regression tests were used to check for publication bias, and sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the robustness of the results. A random-effects model was used for the meta-analysis, on the basis of which subgroup analyses were performed by time of investigation (study period) and by gender and major of the subjects. Result A total of 42 studies including 174,440 subjects were included in this review, and the quality of the included studies was mainly intermediate and advanced. The findings of the meta-analysis showed that the overall levels of Chinese college students’ knowledge, positive and negative attitudes, and practice of preventive measures towards COVID-19 were 74% (95%CI: 69%-79%), 84% (95%CI: 80%-88%), 31% (95%CI: 23%-38%) and 82% (95%CI: 77%-86%), respectively. The results of subgroup analysis showed that female and medical college students had higher levels of knowledge and practice on COVID-19. Conclusion The study findings showed that the overall KAP level of college students in China included in the study was relatively optimistic. Influenced by gender, major and time, there were differences in the KAP level of college students. In order to promote the effective prophylaxis and control of pandemic, we recommend implementing targeted measures to improve the awareness rate of COVID-19-related knowledge among this group and the implementation rate of COVID-19 preventive measures among male and non-medical college students.

Knowledge, Atitude and Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccine among Undergradute Students in Southern Nigeria

“…The current study showed that 95% of the participants had a good knowledge of COVID-19. This is consistent with the reports of similar studies that showed a good knowledge of COVID-19 among undergraduate students with about 85 -98% of undergraduate students interviewed having a good knowledge of COVID-19 causes, prevention and mode of transmission [15,[17][18][19]. This finding indicates that majority of the undergraduates sampled in the study had good knowledge and reliable sources on the information about COVID-19.…”

“…All responses were collated, with the correct/appropriate response scored as "1" and wrong responses scored as "0". Knowledge of COVID-19 were graded as good (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31), and poor (≤15), while knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine was graded as good (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11), and poor (≤5). The attitude to COVID-19 vaccine were graded as good (4-6), and poor (≤3) also.…”

Visual analysis of the trend of mental health changes among Chinese college students in the context of the normalisation of the new crown epidemic

“…In order to grasp the status of university students' mental health research which has been a hot topic in the past 20 years, this paper uses the CSSCI source journal literature database as the data source and 'university students' mental health' as the search theme, during 2017-2021; the search results are shown in Table 1 [10][11][12]. Through comparative analysis, with the development of society, the mental health of college students has gradually received more attention, and it is worth noting that research on the new crown epidemic is focused on epidemiological and clinical studies [13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…Table 1 Statistics of literature on the topic of 'mental health of college students' from 2017 to 2021 [19][20][21][22][23][24] Year Literature (number of articles) 2017 564 2018 789 2019 943 2020 1031 2021 2347…”

Chest mobility and health-related quality of life in students during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In two systematic reviews analyzing COVID-19 and the mental health of medical students, it was pointed out that the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress can be regarded as problematic to the examined cohorts of future physicians and that research is needed to ensure that they have adequate tools needed to provide high quality and empathetic care to future patients [8,9].…”