Abstract
Background: New corona virus (COVID-19), as an international health threat poses a challenge to physical as well as psychological resilience in the affected countries.
 Objective: The aim of this survey is to explore the level of awareness, health seeking behaviors and preventive measures towards COVID19 among Najran University students.
 Methodology: By adopting a convenient sampling technique, an observational and cross-sectional study was carried out at Najran University, Najran city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A self-reporting electronic questionnaire had been utilized for collecting data.
 Results: A total of 684 students voluntarily completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 20.2±4.1 The most cited source for obtaining information about COVID-19 was the social media (51%). Females showed higher level of knowledge and awareness about the symptoms of the disease than males (74.3% vs 69.9%) respectively, although the difference was not significant with (P-value >0.05). Concerning compliance with preventive measures, medical students were significantly aware and complying with various preventives measures towards COVID-19 (P-value <0.05). Moreover, females seem to be significantly more keen in seeking medical advice when needed than males (P-value <0.05). Almost more than two-third of the respondents know the recommended general precautions in terms of wearing masks, not to touch outdoors surfaces directly without gloves and avoiding crowded places. 556 (81.3%) of the participants believe that they should wear face-masks outdoors. Interestingly, 6% of the participants thought that they prefer to take some herbs daily in different forms to avoid being infected with COVID-19. Additionally, females had an overall higher Mean tension level towards being infected than males (Mean± SD was 5.61 ±1.65 vs 4.55± 1.63) respectively.
 Conclusion: It was concluded that the students have high level of knowledge and awareness about COVID-19, beside positive attitudes to preventive measures and acceptable health seeking behaviors. It is highly recommended that the entire Najran University community level of awareness be assessed to design and implement educational programs when needed.
Highlights
Starting from December 2019, the number of Novel Corona-virus cases are increasing dramatically especially in Middle East countries, they are declining in some countries worldwide including China which is the original source of this pandemic [1,2]
The high level of awareness among the university students could be due to the effectiveness of different awareness campaigns that were conducted by Saudi Ministry of Health around the country beside the abundant information that available in social media. This finding was in accordance with what had been reported by Pranav et al who concluded that 71.2% of their studied students in Mumbai (India) were reporting correct answers regarding the awareness about COVID-19 [18]
It is a bit less than what had been reported by Alzoubi et al who stated that the level of awareness about symptoms of COVID-19 among their studied sample in Jordan which was more than 90% [19]
Summary
Starting from December 2019, the number of Novel Corona-virus (nCOV-2019) cases are increasing dramatically especially in Middle East countries, they are declining in some countries worldwide including China which is the original source of this pandemic [1,2]. It had been reported that people who are at greater risk for developing severe symptoms are elderly people besides those with chronic health disorders such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory disorders and cancers. For children it appears to be relatively rare and mild [4,5,6]. The underlying pathological mechanisms that let some infected people to get seriously sick while others get mild symptoms are still unknown [7] This disease of unknown etiology and source let WHO and most countries to adopt strict international precautions to stop spreading of the disease [8,9]. Concerning compliance with preventive measures, medical students were significantly aware and complying with various preventives measures towards
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