Knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic among undergraduate medical and dental students in Lalitpur, Nepal

Abstract

Background. Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has become a major global problem. There is an urgent need to measure the knowledge of the disease among health science students who can play an active role in pandemic control. The research was conducted to examine COVID-19 knowledge among medical and dental students in a Nepalese medical college, compare the knowledge to other studies in the literature and identify educational needs of students who may be involved in treating COVID-19 patients. 
 Methods. The cross-sectional study was performed during the third week of June among first to final year medical and dental students. As the country was in lockdown, a structured online questionnaire was used. The responses obtained were entered into IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows and the normality of the data checked using one-sample Kolmogorov Smirnov test. The demographic parameters were tabulated, and total score compared among different subgroups of participants. The frequency of different measures mentioned by respondents were also noted.
 Results. More than half of the participants were males (59.6%). Nearly half 282 (49.8%) belonged to age group 21-23 years. The majority 415 (73.5%) were undergraduate medical and 150 (26.5%) were undergraduate dental students. The largest number of respondents, 140 (24.9%), were from the second year of study and 344 (60.9%) were from urban areas. The median total score was 20 and the interquartile range 4. The maximum possible score was 29. The scores among students belonging to different years of study were significantly different (p=0.006). Total scores were not significantly different among other subgroups.
 Conclusions. The knowledge of the participants was good. Deficiencies in knowledge were noted in certain areas and these should be addressed through an educational intervention. One of the challenges is the rapid evolution of our knowledge about this condition, which may require regular refresher sessions. Similar studies can be undertaken in other medical colleges in the country and in nursing and pharmacy colleges.

Do Dental Students Regret the Career Choice Because of Covid-19 Pandemic?

“…The lower percentage of this question may be related to not being well presented on social media, TV or etc as it is a less common symptom. The correct response rate for the question about the specific treatment of the disease was 94% and slightly higher than Jha et al 4 (92.2%).…”

“…In our study, the knowledge scores of both preclinical and clinical classes were high enough which is in accordance with the literature. 4,13,18,19 Clinical classes had higher general and professional knowledge scores than preclinical classes. This result was confirmed by Quadri et al 13 as they stated that the qualification level (interns, auxiliaries, specialists) had a significant effect on the knowledge on COVID-19.…”

“…Because of this, the transmission potential from the infected individuals in the early days of the disease is extremely high. 4 Dentists have high risk of being infected and spreading the infection because of the constant exposure to patient-induced droplets and aerosols. [5][6][7][8] Therefore, dentists and dental students should be very careful and develop strategies to prevent COVID-19.…”

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan: The paradigm of confidence, convenience, and complacency; A cross-sectional study

“…Bearing this in mind, if policymakers work towards increasing confidence and convenience for the vaccine while decreasing complacency towards vaccine amongst the general population, they can subsequently variate the community’s intention to vaccinate significantly, this can be done by adopting tailored interventions for the context at hand concerning the different groups in the country, an approach supported in previous literature [ 42 ]. Masks are an easy and effective way to prevent COVID-19 which are reccomended majorly [ 43 , 44 ]. Less adherence to COVID-19 health behaviors i.e low practice of SOPs was established as a contributor to vaccine hesitancy in our study, this finding is consistent with a previous study done in Australia which determined the same for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy amongst the Australian population [ 45 ], similar was also reported in a study done in the US which cited that those who reported negative COVID-19 vaccination intentions had reduced odds of more frequent adherence to social distancing and wearing masks [ 46 ].…”

Evaluation of Paramedical Student’s Knowledge on COVID-19: A Comparative Study

“…The individuals who work in healthcare system still need to be conversant with the relevant knowledge with emerging threats in order to promote correct practices and protection. Scientific literatures suggest that few studies on knowledge about COVID-19 had been conducted in undergraduate medical and dental students in Nepal [11,12], but no studies has been found in HA students so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge about COVID-19 among health assistant students studying in different paramedical colleges in Janakpurdham.…”