Knowledge and Attitudes of University Students' toward COVID-19 Outbreak at Misan Governorate/Iraq: An Online Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Materials and Methods:Online cross‑sectional study was performed in November 2020 to assess knowledge and attitudes about coronavirus infection among university students in Misan Governorate, Iraq. A total of 796 students were recruited in this study and ages ranged from 18 to 40 years old.

Results: Among the respondents, 66% were female, the majority of participants 96.6% were undergraduate students, more than half of sample have contact to coronavirus patient 52.2%, and 78.1% of them were not infected. Majority of the participants showed moderate level of the knowledge 67.5%. About 74.6% of students demonstrated positive level of attitudes towards COVID-19. The study found a significant difference in knowledge scores across age, study field, contact to infected patient, and sources of information (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference found between the students' attitudes with their all of demographic data (p value > 0.05).

Recommendations:Therefore, these results can help in assessing the actual health situation and thus work on implementing preventive education programs and measures within the community in a more aggressive manner.