Evaluation of Knowledge and Awareness regarding COVID-19 Disease among Medical and Dental students in Saudi Arabia

Mohd.  Saleem; Fahaad  Alenazi; Soha Abdallah  Moursi; Hussain Gadelkarim  Ahmed; Md. Jahoor  Alam; Moath Ibrahim Ayad  Alzapni; Ghada Abdullah Saleh  Jarallah; Talal Banan  Alanazi; Renad Adel Mohammed  Almusawi; Faisal Abdullah  Alrashidi; Rawan Abdullah Saleh Jarallah; Mirza Masroor Ali  Beg; Azharuddin Sajid Syed Khaja

doi:10.47203/IJCH.2020.v32i03.005

Authors

Mohd. Saleem University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2813-6279
Fahaad Alenazi University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4515-7055
Soha Abdallah Moursi University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3922-2247
Hussain Gadelkarim Ahmed University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Md. Jahoor Alam University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0144-6517
Moath Ibrahim Ayad Alzapni University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9819-010X
Ghada Abdullah Saleh Jarallah University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5940-6329
Talal Banan Alanazi University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3413-7761
Renad Adel Mohammed Almusawi University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9631-2516
Faisal Abdullah Alrashidi University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2217-6117
Rawan Abdullah Saleh Jarallah College of Dentistry, Taibah University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5876-5124
Mirza Masroor Ali Beg Jamia Hamdard University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4519-721X
Azharuddin Sajid Syed Khaja University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1594-1826

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47203/IJCH.2020.v32i03.005

Keywords:

COVID-19, healthcare workers, pandemic, SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the levels of information regarding the current emerging outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among medical and dental students at universities in Saudi Arabia through an online questionnaire. Methods: A detailed structured questionnaire was prepared, containing demographic profiles and questions related to knowledge and awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was emailed to 240 subjects, out of these, 209 responded to all the questions. Results: The majority of the respondents were aware of the current and past epidemics of the coronavirus diseases, and they heard about SARS or MERS (89.5%) and the COVID-19 pandemic (94.7%). Internet was the main source of information (63.1%) followed by professors and physicians (24.2%), print media (6.1%), television (4%), and family or friends (2.5%). The majority of respondents received information about COVID-19 from the Ministry of Health (85.6%) and 44.5% of respondents participated in the COVID-19 symposium or conference. Respondents of the college of Medicine were more aware (96.1%) about COVID-19 than respondents of the college of Dentistry (86.2%; p=0.02). Conclusion: The study finds a high level of COVID-19 awareness among medical and dental students at KSA universities. However, there is a need to study in a community-level assessment regarding knowledge about COVID-19

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References

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Evaluation of Knowledge and Awareness regarding COVID-19 Disease among Medical and Dental students in Saudi Arabia

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