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.
Highlights
Coronaviruses (CoVs) belong to the Nidovirales order of the Coronaviridae family that are positive-sense single stranded non-segmented RNA viruses
We examined the major sources of information that students used to gain knowledge toward the COVID-19 outbreak
Our analysis identified that the majority of medical students relied on online resources to obtain information including the use of social media platforms (Table 2)
Summary
Coronaviruses (CoVs) belong to the Nidovirales order of the Coronaviridae family that are positive-sense single stranded non-segmented RNA viruses. Alpha- and beta-CoVs infect humans as well and cause a wide variety of infections ranging from common cold seen with 229E and OC43 CoVs, to croup, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia seen with NL63 and HKU1 [4, 5]. The SARS outbreak occurred in Southern China in November 2002 and spread to 17 countries infecting 8,089 people with a case-fatality rate of 9.6% [8]. MERS, which occurred in 2012 in Saudi Arabia and spread to 21 countries around the globe, infected 2,506 people with 34.0% case-fatality rate [9]. Despite having these near pandemic infections no specific antiviral drug or vaccine has been made available for coronaviruses
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
