Knowledge and Behaviors towards COVID-19 among University of Aleppo Students: An Online Cross-sectional Survey

BackgroundCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infection caused by a novel coronavirus that affects respiratory tract. Peoples awareness and knowledge of, and behavior and attitude toward COVID-19 are scarcely investigated, making medical literature related to this point poor. we aim to measure the knowledge of, and the reaction to COVID-19 among University of Aleppo students in Syria, and the determinants of their awareness and behavior regarding this disease. Materials and MethodsThis was an online, questionnaire-based cross-sectional study, that was conducted from 21st March to 30 March 2020. We included undergraduate students of the University of Aleppo (Syria). The questionnaire consisted of three sections: Demographics,knowledge and behaviours. Every participants knowledge was scored from 0-13 depending on the number of correct answers in the knowledge section. The correctness was judged depending on WHO recommendations at the time of questionnaire administration. P-value of 0.05 was considered significant. ResultsAmong this well-educated and predominantly medical and health-related students, 682 (45.4%) students had a good knowledge level, which is somehow disappointing. The current study shows that 1st year students and non-medical specialties students and smokers had significantly lower knowledge levels than others. On contrary, residing with less people-which may indicate a higher socioeconomic status-, was associated with a higher knowledge level. We also found that commitment to preventive measures was in general satisfying and correlated significantly with knowledge level and gender in most cases. ConclusionJunior students, non-medical specialties, smokers and those who live with high number of people are vulnerable to less knowledge level and awareness campaigns should concentrate on them. Increasing awareness is useful to increase commitment to preventive measures, and groups that have less adherence to preventive measures, as described in detail, should be taken into consideration while designing public health responses. Finally, we should be aware of the negative impact of quarantine on public health to take it into consideration for current campaigns and future policies.