Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Covid-19 among Students during the Early Phase of Pandemic in a University in Borneo, Malaysia

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude and practice plays a major role in determining the readiness of the community to adopt the behavioural change towards recommended preventive measures outlined by public health officials. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among university students as well as its associated factors. Method: This is a cross sectional study that was conducted among students in a public university during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. An online validated self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test was used to determine the association between independent variables with knowledge, attitude, and practice score.Results: Overall response rate of this study was 92.9 (n=524). Median score of knowledge domain was 78.0 (IQR= ±12.0), median attitude score of 49.0 (IQR= ±5.0), and median practice score of 80.0 (IQR= ±11.0). The mean knowledge, attitude and practice score were significantly higher among diploma holder (vs degree holder, p<0.05), residing in main Kota Kinabalu campus (vs non-KK campus, p<0.001), studying in medical faculty (vs non-medical faculty, p<0.001), and attended COVID-19 education (vs non-attendance; p<0.05).Conclusion: COVID-19 related knowledge and attitude were below satisfactory level during earlier phase of the pandemic. However, majority of respondents have positive behaviour towards COVID-19 prevention. This highlights the importance of accurate and tailored health education to improve the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of recommended measures to prevent COVID-19 spread.

Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice Towards Handling Covid-19 Among Nurses in a teaching hospital

“…This study found that most respondents had a negative attitude (61%). This result was similar to Sazali et al (2021), where most respondents had negative attitude scores regarding . This might be because of the adaptation of the new norm.…”

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Covid-19 Among Primary School Students in Kedah, Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Previous studies associated individuals with lower educational level having reduced COVID-19 knowledge 22,29 ; thus, making them more vulnerable and more likely to develop negative attitude and behaviour 22 .…”

“…In the Malaysian context, majority of the studies focused on general population including young adults and elderly 13,28 and university students 29 . Although, one recent study with a younger age group (15 years and above) aimed to find the KAP of social distancing during COVID-19 outbreak 30 .…”

Analyzing Predictors of Control Measures and Psychosocial Problems Associated with COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Eight Countries

“…The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/ 10.3390/bs11080106/s1, Text: Method (References[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]); TableS1: Demographic, education, and professional statistics of participants across different countries.Table S2: p-value for different Chi-Squared Test result with 95% significance. (Significant results are bold).…”

“…The following are available online at , Text: Method (References [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]); Table S1: Demographic, education, and professional statistics of participants across different countries. Table S2: p-value for different Chi-Squared Test result with 95% significance.…”