COVID-19 Risk Perceptions, Concerns and Factors Affecting College Students

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to increase the knowledge, awareness, and normalization adaptation of university students about the disease with the pieces of training given by academicians about COVID-19 and thus contribute to the control of the epidemic. We also aimed at writing education on disease risk perceptions and anxiety levels related to COVID-19 disease. In the study, two weeks of online education were planned for university students on COVID19 disease. A questionnaire was prepared to give knowledge about the anxiety and risk perceptions of the students about COVID-19 disease. Questionnaire training and finally administered. It was analyzed with the SPSS 22.0 program. Whereas the number of students who answered the pre-education questionnaire was 116, 56 students completed the questionnaire at the end of the training. There was no intelligent difference in the risk perceptions of the students about getting sick and losing their lives from illness before and after education. There is no significant difference in the results of the Wilcoxon signed sum of ranks test for the GAD7 scale scores that made the post-test (p = 0.905, z = -0.11). Except for 9 students who did both tests, 107 pre-tests and 47 post-tests did not differ significantly between the groups in terms of disease risk and GAB7 grading (p> 0.05). As a result, the motivation of university students to participate in the struggle against the pandemic is weak. Ensuring that health-related university students, as well as students from different faculties, participate in the fight against COVID-19 with educational studies will be important in controlling the epidemic.