A survey of differences in college students' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards COVID-19——Based on a comparative study of medical students and non-medical students

Abstract

Objective: To understand the differences between medical college students and non-medical college students in terms of cognition, attitude and prevention and control behavior of COVID-19 virus during the normal epidemic prevention and control stage.Methods: Questionnaires were issued to students of Chongqing Medical University and other colleges and universities across the country and data were collected powered by www.wjx.cn.Later, SPSS26.0 and Excel were used for statistical analysis and processing of the survey data.Results: A total of 333 valid questionnaires were collected in this survey, including 210 valid questionnaires for medical college students (63.1%) and 123 valid questionnaires for non-medical college students (36.1%). There are statistically significant differences between the two types of college students in cognitive level, school closure policy and government management policy (P<0.05).In terms of cognition, when students majoring in medicine and students majoring in non-medicine are asked whether asymptomatic infected persons can become the source of infection (P=0.019), and when COVID-19 is exposed to high concentration of aerosol in a relatively closed environment for a long time, There were significant differences in the answers to questions such as whether aerosol transmission is possible (P=0.001), whether N95 and surgical masks can effectively isolate COVID-19 virus (P=0.001); In terms of attitude, there was a significant difference between the two types of students only on whether the school closure policy and the government's policy of "no visiting and no gathering" was necessary (P=0.01).In terms of prevention and control behavior, there was no statistical significance between medical college students and non-medical college students (P>0.05).Conclusion: College students have a higher level of awareness of the COVID-19 epidemic, but the level of awareness of medical students is significantly higher than that of non-medical students; non-medical students have a higher degree of recognition of COVID-19-related policies than medical students; there is no difference in behavior between the two.College students need to improve their awareness, attitudes and behaviors about the epidemic through various methods, and universities and the government should cooperate with each other to establish and improve the epidemic prevention and control system, and promote college students to become a firm group fighting against the epidemic.