Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior of Egyptian Medical Students Toward the Novel Coronavirus Disease-19: A Cross-Sectional Study

Shaimaa A. M. Abd El Fatah; Marwa  Salem; Ahmed   Abdel Hakim; Eman D. El Desouky

doi:10.3889/oamjms.2020.5279

Authors

Shaimaa A. M. Abd El Fatah Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Marwa Salem Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
Ahmed Abdel Hakim Faculty of Medicine, South Valley University, Quena, Egypt
Eman D. El Desouky Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2020.5279

Keywords:

Attitude, Behavior, Coronavirus disease-19, Medical students, Knowledge

Abstract

BACKGROUND: People in times of pandemics, crave after any medical field member (including medical students) to gain their knowledge and correct their behaviors.

AIM: We aimed to assess medical students’ coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 related knowledge, attitude, and behavior (KAB).

METHODS: The study is an exploratory cross-sectional study, conducted among medical students using an online survey. Medical students were classified according to their current academic year into either early year’s group (first 3 years in the medical school) or final year’s group (past 3 years in the medical school).

RESULTS: A total of 2255 students completed the questionnaire. Regarding their COVID-19 related knowledge; 63.4% gave unsatisfactory responses (answered <75% of the questionnaire items correctly). Most of males (62.9%) and females (64.1%) gave unsatisfactory responses.

CONCLUSION: Most of students had unsatisfactory responses of the current pandemic; however, the final year’s group had a significantly higher score in nearly all questionnaire (KAB) subsections than the early year’s group. The majority of both groups significantly believed that there are undeclared numbers in Egypt. Facebook and other platforms were the most common sources of information.

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