Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19: A cross-sectional study among university students in Lebanon

Abstract

ABSTRACT The health crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic has quickly evolved into an economic, cultural, and social crisis. Being an active entity in their communities, an evaluation of how much university students can contribute in raising awareness about the pandemic and in volunteering in their communities is deemed necessary. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19 pandemic among university students in Lebanon. An anonymous online self-reported questionnaire was conducted in March 2020 and a total of 193 university students participated. Scores were used to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Our results showed that the majority of the Lebanese University students have a good knowledge and practice score (0.82 and 0.64 respectively). However, the attitude score was relatively low and reflects a high cue to action score and a low Ministry Of Public Health (MOPH) satisfaction score. In addition, the KAP scores significantly differed between students majoring in health-related fields vs students majoring in non-health-related fields. The source of knowledge was associated with its score (p-value = .002). Finally, the statistical analysis proved that the study matches the KAP model which demonstrates that knowledge influences the attitudinal statements while attitude influences practice toward COVID-19. This assessment of the students’ understanding and awareness of the pandemic can help in the development of effective national strategies as well as envisage medium and long-term scenarios of preparedness.