Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices towards COVID-19 Infection and Prevention Measures among Medical Students

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly led to an unprecedented health threat worldwide. During this time, disease prevention is considered to be the best way for general health protection. This is achieved through public health education by extending proper knowledge, promoting an optimistic attitude, and keeping the public compliant with preventive measures. As components of the healthcare system, medical students should also play a role in disease prevention more so in the Philippines where the Department of Health has called upon medical graduates to render services in response to the national emergency. In this study, the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of medical students from Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) towards COVID-19 infection and preventive measures were assessed. Demographic factors, their respective effect size on KAP, as well as the relationship between KAP variables were determined. The revised questionnaire, drafted based on qualitative and quantitative validity tests, was then used for the pilot study to generate the final questionnaire. Responses from participants underwent descriptive and correlational analysis. The results showed that the majority of the medical students of CIM have adequate knowledge (78.24%), positive attitude (80.68%), and good practices (94.38%) towards COVID-19 infection and prevention measures. Females have a significant association (p-value = 0.03) with better practices than male counterparts. Knowledge (p-value = 0.004) and attitude (p-value = 0.003) also showed significant correlation with practices, implying that knowledge and attitude play a role in shaping compliance to health practices. Therefore, health interventions should aim to disseminate accurate, evidence-based information and improve attitude towards the implemented precautionary measures in order to increase effectiveness of policies.