Measuring the Level of Knowledge and Awareness About COVID-19 Among the Community of a College in Dubai: A Comparative Study Between Participants of Health Sciences and Non-Health Sciences Backgrounds

Lamia AlHajri and Heba M. Mohamed

SAGE Open, 2022, vol. 12, issue 2, 21582440221091723

Abstract: COVID-19, which has become a worldwide pandemic, prompted various healthcare organizations to take measures to stop or slow its spread. These measures require behavioral change. According to the health belief model, knowledge and awareness are needed to establish an assessment of threat and determine whether a behavior will be changed. Since the situation is related to a viral infection, it is expected that people with health backgrounds will have more knowledge and awareness about COVID-19. This study aims to compare the levels of COVID-19 knowledge and awareness of faculty, staff, and students in health sciences and non-health sciences disciplines at an all-female college in Dubai. This will help anticipate the risk for individuals, and predict compliance with regulations. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered online questionnaire. The results were analyzed using chi-square or Fisher’s exact test. Participants’ knowledge and awareness regarding contagiousness, transmission, incubation period, recovery and mortality rate, susceptibility of elderly people, and the stay-at-home policy were generally high, regardless of their background. This high level of knowledge could be attributed to the rapid dissemination of information through social media. Participants from the health sciences were significantly more knowledgeable about certain preventive measures, the causative pathogen, and its transmission through animals ( p  

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; health belief model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:21582440221091723

DOI: 10.1177/21582440221091723

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