Medical Students’ Knowledge, Prevention and Perceived Risk of COVID-19

Abstract

Objective: to identify the knowledge, prevention behaviors and perceived risk of covid-19 in medical students. Methods: descriptive, cross-sectional study. Students from a medical school participated from September to December 2020. The inclusion criteria were: to be enrolled in the first to tenth semester of the Medical Surgeon Bachelor's Degree, no matter age or gender, who agreed to participate in the research giving informed consent by answering an online survey consisting of 26 questions including fifteen items on knowledge of covid-19, nine on prevention behaviors, and two on covid-19 risk perception. Descriptive analysis was performed. Results: 912 surveys were included, 62.2% were female (n=567), 82% said they had received information related to covid-19 from reliable information sources (n=748), 96.5% talked to their family and friends about prevention measures (n=880), 63.8% were unaware of N95 mask use during intubation, suctioning, bronchoscopy and cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedures (n=582) and 43.3% indicated that they were afraid of becoming infected (n=395). Conclusion: most of the participants reported having received adequate information to learn about aspects related to covid-19, but were unaware of essential aspects such as the use of N95 masks. It is necessary to educate and inform the medical school student population in order to decrease the perception of risk and increase prevention behaviors.