IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i2p842-d483321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Medical Students and COVID-19: Knowledge, Preventive Behaviors, and Risk Perception

Author

Listed:
  • Mansour Alsoghair

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia)

  • Mohammad Almazyad

    (Department of General Surgery, National Guard Hospital, Eastern Province 34217, Saudi Arabia)

  • Tariq Alburaykan

    (Department of Internal Medicine, Buraidah Central Hospital, Qassim 52361, Saudi Arabia)

  • Abdulrhman Alsultan

    (Department of Anatomy and Histology, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia)

  • Abdulmajeed Alnughaymishi

    (Department of Family Medicine, Uyun Aljawa General Hospital, Qassim 52347, Saudi Arabia)

  • Sulaiman Almazyad

    (Medical Intern, Unayzah College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia)

  • Meshari Alharbi

    (Medical Resident, King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Qassim 52347, Saudi Arabia)

  • Wesam Alkassas

    (Medical Intern, College of Medicine, Sulaiman Al Rajhi University, Qassim 52347, Saudi Arabia)

  • Abdulaziz Almadud

    (Medical Intern, Unayzah College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia)

  • Mohammed Alsuhaibani

    (Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Qassim 51452, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is an international public health threat. This study aimed to evaluate COVID-19-related knowledge, preventive behaviors, and risk perception among Saudi Arabian medical students and interns. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among fourth- and fifth-year medical students and interns between June and August 2020 at three colleges of medicine in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia. A previously validated questionnaire was distributed as an online survey. Results: The total mean knowledge score was 12.5/15 points; 83.9% achieved a high score. The mean score of self-reported preventive behavior was 8.40; 94.1% achieved a high score. The overall mean risk perception score was 5.34/8 points; 31.6% achieved a high score. Conclusion: Medical students assessed in this study displayed sufficient knowledge and preventive behaviors regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and an average level of risk perception. Lower scores by younger medical students suggest that they must improve their COVID-19 knowledge and risk perception, as they are a potential source of health information in their communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Mansour Alsoghair & Mohammad Almazyad & Tariq Alburaykan & Abdulrhman Alsultan & Abdulmajeed Alnughaymishi & Sulaiman Almazyad & Meshari Alharbi & Wesam Alkassas & Abdulaziz Almadud & Mohammed Alsuhai, 2021. "Medical Students and COVID-19: Knowledge, Preventive Behaviors, and Risk Perception," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-9, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:2:p:842-:d:483321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/842/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/842/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ji Soo Kim & Jeong Sil Choi, 2016. "Middle East respiratory syndrome–related knowledge, preventive behaviours and risk perception among nursing students during outbreak," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(17-18), pages 2542-2549, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qiang Zhang & Banyong Sun & Yaxiong Cheng & Xijie Li, 2021. "Residual Self-Calibration and Self-Attention Aggregation Network for Crop Disease Recognition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Young-Mi Jung & Na-Young Kim, 2022. "Factors Affecting Preventive Health Behaviors against COVID-19 in Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-13, May.
    3. Natascha Mojtahedzadeh & Felix Alexander Neumann & Elisabeth Rohwer & Albert Nienhaus & Matthias Augustin & Volker Harth & Birgit-Christiane Zyriax & Stefanie Mache, 2021. "The Health Behaviour of German Outpatient Caregivers in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-30, August.
    4. Jina Choo & Sooyeon Park & Songwhi Noh, 2021. "Associations of COVID-19 Knowledge and Risk Perception with the Full Adoption of Preventive Behaviors in Seoul," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-14, November.
    5. Aureliusz Andrzej Kosendiak & Bartosz Adamczak & Sylwiusz Kontek & Zofia Kuźnik & Michał Roman & Michał Gostkowski & Arkadiusz Niedziółka, 2023. "Level of Physical Activity, Sleep Quality and Use of Personal Protective Equipment of Students at Wroclaw Medical University during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-28, January.
    6. Alfonso Gastelum-Strozzi & Claudia Infante-Castañeda & Juan Guillermo Figueroa-Perea & Ingris Peláez-Ballestas, 2021. "Heterogeneity of COVID-19 Risk Perception: A Socio-Mathematical Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-14, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jina Choo & Sooyeon Park & Songwhi Noh, 2021. "Associations of COVID-19 Knowledge and Risk Perception with the Full Adoption of Preventive Behaviors in Seoul," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Silvia Gallegati & Luca Aquilanti & Valerio Temperini & Gloria Polinesi & Giorgio Rappelli, 2021. "The Impact of Coronavirus Information-Seeking Behavior on Dental Care Access: A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-11, November.
    3. Shu-Mei Liu & Shu-Fang Shih & Bo Meng & Rui Zhen & Xiao-Ben Pan & Eric Ng & Chia-Hsuan Hsu & Wei-Ta Fang, 2021. "Gendered Factors Associated with Preventive Behaviors and Mental Health among Chinese Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic Home Quarantine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Hyeon-Young Kim & Sun-Hwa Shin & Eun-Hye Lee, 2022. "Effects of Health Belief, Knowledge, and Attitude toward COVID-19 on Prevention Behavior in Health College Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-11, February.
    5. Gun Ja Jang & Ginam Jang & Sangjin Ko, 2021. "Factors Influencing the Preventive Practice of International Students in South Korea against COVID-19 during the Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-10, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:2:p:842-:d:483321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.