Risk Perception Measurement and Influencing Factors of COVID-19 in Medical College Students

Abstract

Purpose: In China, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been under control and entered the normal prevention and control stage. For medical college students, many studies have analyzed their knowledge, risk perception, and prevention behaviors of COVID-19, but only a few pieces of research explore the content structure of COVID-19 risk perception and the influencing factors. This study measured the students' risk perception of COVID-19 and its dimensions and analyzed the influencing factors of risk perception among them.Methods: The online questionnaire survey was conducted at Hangzhou Medical College in Zhejiang Province among undergraduates and junior college students. A scale was formulated to precisely measure and analyze the COVID-19 risk perception among medical college students. The factors affecting the COVID-19 risk perception in medical college students were analyzed using the multivariate linear regression model.Results: A total of 810 medical students participated in the survey. Results show that COVID-19 risk perception among medical college students was divided into four dimensions: perceived health threat, perceived severity, perceived controllability, and perceived infection possibility. The results showed that income, education, major, and COVID-19 knowledge were the important factors affecting the COVID-19 risk perception of medical college students. Related factors have different influences on the various dimensions of COVID-19 risk perception. COVID-19 knowledge was significantly related to all dimensions of risk perception.Conclusion: This study evaluates the content structure of medical college students' risk perception of COVID-19 precisely and related influencing factors. It is necessary to grasp the risk perception, prevention, and control behaviors of medical college students of different backgrounds, education levels, and majors. Further knowledge training should be conducted for students majoring in clinical medicine, especially the pandemic prevention and control measure training to enhance their sense of security at work.

Conocimientos, prevención y riesgo percibido de COVID-19 en estudiantes de medicina

“…This indicates the importance of health education that could improve prevention behavior toward covid-19 in society. 32 Regarding risk perception about covid-19, contrary to other studies reporting positive risk perceptions, 33,34 this study identified that students were afraid of getting infected and infecting their loved ones. This implies that college students may be more concerned about their parents and other older family members than about themselves, an aspect that has been seen in another study.…”

COVID-19 Vaccinating Russian Medical Students—Challenges and Solutions: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…However, the presence of words such as ‘hesitancy’, ‘barriers’, and ‘refusal’ in the literature regarding COVID-19 vaccination demonstrates the clear problems of COVID-19 vaccine approval among the young medical community. It was shown that almost all Russian medical students believed that COVID-19 was a serious disease (89.3%) and expressed profound concern about the current epidemiological situation (89.9%), sounding similar to the common understanding of the situation among medical students from around the world; vaccination importance was recognized by most of the respondents in the known studies, reaching 73.2–99.4% [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ].…”

“…According to recent studies, the understanding of the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine among medical students all over the world is very high, since COVID is a potentially severe acute respiratory infection [ 28 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ]. However, the presence of words such as ‘hesitancy’, ‘barriers’, and ‘refusal’ in the literature regarding COVID-19 vaccination demonstrates the clear problems of COVID-19 vaccine approval among the young medical community.…”

Characteristics associated with optimistic or pessimistic perception about the probability of contracting COVID-19: A cross-sectional study of Japanese older adults

“…In this study, those who perceived their financial conditions as wealthy were more likely to be optimistic. Participants whose household economy was wealthy probably did not need to worry about medical expenditure and their life after contracting COVID-19; therefore, they became more optimistic about infection probability ( Alicea-Planas et al, 2021 ; Qin et al, 2021 ). Engaging in paid work was also positively associated with pessimism about infection probability in this study, although some previous research found that unemployed people were more likely to experience psychological symptoms than employed people at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak ( Xiong et al, 2020 ).…”