Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has become a great threat to public health, which has greatly impacted the study and life of undergraduate students in China. This study aims to perform a survey of their knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) associated with COVID-19.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was designed to gather information regarding the COVID-19 related KAP among undergraduates during the home isolation in the outbreak. Subjects were recruited from 10 universities in Shaanxi Province, China. Enrollees voluntarily submitted their answers to a pre-designed questionnaire online.ResultsA total of 872 subjects (female, 534; male, 338) were enrolled with ages from 17 to 25 years old. This cohort included 430 medical and 442 non-medical students, 580 freshmen and 292 higher school year students. There were 453 from public schools and 442 from private school, residing in 28 regions and provinces at the time of study. Results showed that appropriate knowledge was acquired by 82.34% subjects; the levels were significantly higher in undergraduates from public universities and medical majors than those from private schools and non-medical majors (p<0.05). 73.81% subjects reported positive attitudes; females showed significantly higher levels of positive attitudes than males (p<0.05). Proactive practice was found in 87.94% subjects. Using a common scoring method, the overall scores for Knowledge, Attitude and Practice were 4.12 ± 0.749 (range: 0 ~ 5), 8.54 ± 1.201 (range: 0 ~ 10), and 8.91 ± 1.431 (range: 0 ~ 10), respectively. There was a positive correlation between attitude and practice (r = 0.319, p < 0.05) in the whole study group. Total KAP score was 21.57 ± 2.291 (range: 0 ~ 25), which was significantly different between gender groups and major groups.ConclusionsMost undergraduates acquired necessary knowledge, positive attitude and proactive practice in response to COVID-19 outbreak; but their KAP scores significantly varied by gender, major and school types.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a great threat to public health, which has greatly impacted the study and life of undergraduate students in China
Knowledge of COVID-19 COVID-19 related knowledge was assessed by 5 categories
It will lead the public to acquire appropriate knowledge, mitigate panic and seek for positive attitude, and comply with aligned and desired practices. All these KAP elements have been considered crucial to ensure effective prevention and control of the pandemic. This cross-sectional survey on 872 undergraduate students found that most of them were well informed with COVID-19 related knowledge, showed positive attitude and proactive practice during the outbreak, indicating that effective health education was delivered by the massive public education campaigns
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a great threat to public health, which has greatly impacted the study and life of undergraduate students in China. The outbreak put entire educational system in unprecedented difficult situations; undergraduate students represented a special group that was at the ages to acquire autonomy and independence of life but with limited experiences. Their perceptions and behaviors were posited to be greatly affected by the pandemic, which needed to be explored. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) associated with COVID-19 among undergraduates in China to evaluate the readiness of Chinese undergraduate students in response to this pandemic
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