Document Type : Original Article
Abstract
Background: Since 2019, a new strain of the coronavirus family has caused a pandemic and many infections all over the world. Considering that medical students, due to their extensive contact with patients in the clinical setting, have a higher risk of COVID-19, the aım of thıs study was measure the level of knowledge about this disease and self-evaluation of the extent of performing preventive behaviors among medical students.
Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted among 209 5th, 6th , and 7th year medical students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in 2022. Knowledge and preventive behaviors were evaluated by an online questionnaire containing 24 questions. The validity of the questionnaire was also checked by calculating CVR and CVI. They had acceptable values, and finally, the correlation between these variables was checked by statistical test.
Results: The level of knowledge of the participants about COVID-19 was 89.2%; the rate of performing preventive behaviors was 81.8%. No significant difference was found between the two sexes in the variables. The level of knowledge had a weak but significant positive correlation with the amount of performing preventive behaviors.
Conclusion: The participants' knowledge about the disease and preventive behaviors was at a high level. Considering emergence of new subspecies and a chance of new epidemics, there seems to be a need to freshen up students’ preventive behaviors.