Knowledge, Attitudes, and Precautionary Measure towards Covid-19 among Medical Students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2021
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Date
2021-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Abeba University
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 is a respiratory tract infectious disease caused by severe acute
respiratory syndrome, coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the offspring of the strain SARSCoV-1
that
caused
the
outbreak
of
SARS
infection
from
2002
to
2004.
As
of
December
15,
2020
world
health organization global aggregate report 70 million and 1.6 million COVID-19
morbidities and mortality were registered respectively. Meanwhile, the burden of the situation
has resulted in the health system's shortage of health care workers, and in this context, the
participation of medical students on the front line is obligatory. In addition, as with any section
of of the society, it is important to evaluate the knowledge, precautionary measure, and attitude
of medical students as long as they are at risk. Therefore, applicable training regarding COVID19
is an
urgent
prerequisite
that
universities
and
health
systems
may
assure.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and precautionary
measure towards COVID-19 among medical students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2021.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected Addis Ababa medical
schools on a sample size of 371 students. The data was collected from April to May, 2021, using
pretested and structured self-administered questionnaire. Fully completed data were entered into
Epi-Data manager V-4.6 and were exported to SPSS V-26 for further analysis. Finally, the data
was computed as means, standard deviation, and summarized as frequencies and proportions.
Association between independent and dependent variables was assessed using bivariable and
multivariable logistic regression, and P-Value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Result: A total of 349 students participated in the study with a response rate of 94.1%. Among
the participants 207 (59.3%) were males, and the mean age was 23.13 ± 2.61 years. The study
revealed that good knowledge of medical students was 37.8%, positive attitude level 30.4%, and
uses of precautionary measures regarding COVID-19 45%. Students who were in Clinical-II
were 2.9 times more likely to have good knowledge towards COVID-19 than those who were in
Pre-Clinical-I (P=0.02).
Conclusion: In this study area medical students have lower knowledge, attitude, and
precautionary measures towards COVID-19 compared to other studies, and it requires intensive
work of the government and other stakeholders to improve their KAP status..
Description
Keywords
COVID-19, Medical Students, Addis Ababa