Medical Students and COVID-19: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Precautionary Measures. A Descriptive Study From Jordan

Abstract

The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with increasing morbidity and mortality and has impacted the lives of the global populations. Human behavior and knowledge assessment during the crisis are critical in the overall efforts to contain the outbreak. To assess knowledge, attitude, perceptions, and precautionary measures toward COVID-19 among a sample of medical students in Jordan. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted between the 16th and 19th of March 2020. Participants were students enrolled in different levels of study at the six medical schools in Jordan. An online questionnaire which was posted on online platforms was used. The questionnaire consisted of four main sections: socio-demographics, sources of information, knowledge attitudes, and precautionary measures regarding COVID-19. Medical students used mostly social media (83.4%) and online search engines (84.8%) as their preferred source of information on COVID-19 and relied less on medical search engines (64.1%). Most students believed that hand shaking (93.7%), kissing (94.7%), exposure to contaminated surfaces (97.4%), and droplet inhalation (91.0%) are the primary mode of transmission but were indecisive regarding airborne transmission with only 41.8% in support. Participants also reported that elderly with chronic illnesses are the most susceptible group for the coronavirus infection (95.0%). As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic more than 80.0% of study participants adopted social isolation strategies, regular hand washing, and enhanced personal hygiene measures as their first line of defense against the virus. In conclusion, Jordanian medical students showed expected level of knowledge about the COVID-19 virus and implemented proper strategies to prevent its spread.

Knowledge, attitudes, anxiety, and preventive behaviors towards COVID-19 among health care providers in Yemen: an online cross-sectional survey

“…Similarly, the respondents' level of self-reported preventive behaviour signi cantly differed according to their sex, occupation, years of working experience and educational level. These results are in agreement with the results of Rahman and Sathi [20] on the variation of respondents' preventive behavior according to the different age groups, Al-Hanawi et al [25] in regard to the respondents' gender, Saqlain et al [21] regarding the respondents' years of working experience and Khasawneh et al [26] in relation to the respondents' educational level.…”

Knowledge, Socio-cognitive Perceptions and the Practice of Hand Hygiene and Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study of UK University Students

“…In particular, knowledge of all three key symptoms, and lack of treatment and vaccines was high which could potentially impact behaviours. As in the WHO survey [33], but in contrast to other studies [49,59,60], this study did not assess knowledge of transmission measures, because of uncertainties in the general public domain at the time about modes of transmission. In addition, participants exhibited high levels of knowledge of the effectiveness of hand hygiene and social distancing measures in preventing infection, with 90.7% and 93.5% respectively correctly identifying of all or all but one measure.…”

“…In the 2 studies of university populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, only risk perception [48] and gender and economic category [49] have been demonstrated as determinants of protective behaviour. However, in university students in previous pandemics, social norms and self-e cacy [25], perceived threat or concern [23,59], empathic responding [21], course [20] and country of birth [24] have been additionally identi ed as determinants.…”

Knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduate medical and dental students in Lalitpur, Nepal

“…These ndings were also seen in a study done among university students in Jordan. [20] Studies have shown that availability of information in mass and social media can be a source of information for the students. [22] Respondents, (91.5%) were also aware of the cautionary actions, self-isolation period as per WHO guidelines and the effective use of mask for preventing corona infection (94.3%).…”

“…Similar method was used in another study, where class representatives were also involved in forwarding and sharing the questionnaire link to their friends. [20] Students completed the questionnaire at leisure within the period of the study. They signed an integrity pledge that they will answer the questions by themselves and would not consult other resources and with their friends and family members while answering the same.…”