Evaluation of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Related to Self-Testing Procedure against COVID-19 among Greek Students: A Pilot Study

Georgios Marinos, Dimitrios Lamprinos, Panagiotis Georgakopoulos, Evangelos Oikonomou, Georgios Zoumpoulis, Nikolaos Garmpis, Anna Garmpi, Eirini Tzalavara, Gerasimos Siasos, Georgios Rachiotis, Anastasia Papaioannou, Dimitrios Schizas and Christos Damaskos
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Georgios Marinos: Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 75, M. Asias Str., 11527 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios Lamprinos: Emergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Panagiotis Georgakopoulos: Emergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Evangelos Oikonomou: First Department of Cardiology, Hippokration General Hospital, Medical School, University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Georgios Zoumpoulis: Emergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Nikolaos Garmpis: Second Department of Propedeutic Surgery, Laiko General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Anna Garmpi: First Department of Propedeutic Internal Medicine, Laiko General Hospital, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Eirini Tzalavara: Emergency Care Department, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Gerasimos Siasos: First Department of Cardiology, Hippokration General Hospital, Medical School, University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Georgios Rachiotis: Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece
Anastasia Papaioannou: Health Center of Nea Makri, 19005 Attica, Greece
Dimitrios Schizas: First Department of Surgery, Laikon General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Christos Damaskos: N.S. Christeas Laboratory of Experimental Surgery and Surgical Research, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on health, economy, society and education. In the effort to return to normalcy, according to the instructions of the Greek Government for the resumption of the operation of schools, a screening Rapid Antigen Detection Test with the method of self-testing is required for students twice per week, for the early identification and isolation of positive cases. We aimed to pivotally investigate the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to self-testing procedures against COVID-19 among Greek students. A questionnaire was distributed to a convenient sample of students in the region of Athens. Information about the vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2 was also obtained. Our study included 1000 students, with 70% of them having an average grade at school. Most of the participants were aware of coronavirus (98.6%) and the self-test (95.5%). The vast majority of students (97%) performed self-testing twice per week, with the 70% them being assisted by someone else. Nearly one sixth of the participants had been infected by COVID-19 (14%) while 36% of them have already been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. In conclusion, we report high compliance with the COVID-19 self-testing procedure among students in Attica, Greece. Older age adolescents are more likely to not comply with the regulations of self-testing. Consequently, tailored interventions targeted at older age adolescents are warranted in order to increase the acceptability of self-testing.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; students; self-testing; pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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