Knowledge and attitudes of medical students about SARS-CoV-2

Taneri, P E

BACKGROUND: Since the declaration of the new coronavirus outbreak, there is a growing concern and panic among people worldwide. The aim of the study is to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of medical students towards current outbreak. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted between 20 February - 4 March 2020 via an online survey with 285 students from one faculty of medicine in Turkey. Ethical approval was obtained from Bahcesehir University Clinical Research Ethics Committee. RESULTS: Among participants, 59% were female and 70% were Turkish citizen. Mostly, students were getting updates from media (70%) and the following source was WHO (18%). Of all participants, 60% correctly stated that SARS-CoV-2 has lower mortality rate than SARS and MERS. The most used protections were hand-sanitizers, avoiding close contacts with Asians and using masks in crowded areas (respectively 67%, 30%, 29%). On the scale 1 to 10 (1: strongly trust, 10: strongly do not trust); median for WHO's information process was 7, WHO's outbreak management was 6, Turkish Ministry of Health's (TMH) information process was 5 and TMH's outbreak management was 5. Turkish students significantly had lower trust for all of the matters (Mann-Whitney U = 7157.0, p = 0.040; Mann-Whitney U = 6405.5, p = 0.001; Mann-Whitney U = 5313.0, p < 0.001; Mann-Whitney U = 4679.5, p= p < 0.001). Of the participants, 19% said they would not get vaccinated if there was a vaccine. Most common reasons were not feeling at risk and not trusting new vaccines. CONCLUSIONS: There is a lack of the knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 among students, and for that reason a scientific conference about SARS-CoV-2 took place at the faculty in 6th March as an intervention. Especially Turkish students had lower trust for information process and outbreak management of WHO and TMH. One out of five students was not considering to get vaccinated if there was a vaccine for COVID-19. KEY MESSAGES: Turkish students had lower trust for information process and outbreak management of WHO and Turkish Ministry of Health. One out of five students was not willing to get vaccinated if there was any.