Knowledge attitude and behavior towards COVID 19 prevention among middle school students in the phase of normalized prevention and control in Wuhan / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand knowledge, attitude and behavior toward Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) among middle school students in Wuhan, in the phase of normalized control and prevention of COVID 19, so as to provide evidence for further health education.@*Methods@#In January 2021, cluster random sampling method was used to select one middle school from Hongshan and Dongxihu District, as well as Donghu high tech zone, respectively. By using the "questionnaire star" platform, questionnaire QR code were sent to students through QQ or wechat by schools. A total of 4 531 middle school students were investigated.@*Results@#Preventive knowledge and behavior rate was 71.5% (3 238) and 56.0% (2 537), respectively. Preventive behaviors towards COVD 19 was reported in 56.0% (2 537) of participants. Students with parents as health care workers reported higher preventive behaviors(P<0.05).Girls had a higher rate of possession of health knowledge for prevention and control than boys. Compared with "essentially no concern about the epidemic","students with less concern about the epidemic" and "those with similar concern as 2020" were more likely to have higher awareness of health knowledge for prevention and control. Compared with the first-year junior middle school students, high school students were less likely to have the rates of knowledge for prevention and control health [OR(95%CI）=1.24（1.09-1.43）,2.56(1.54-4.25),3.30(1.99-5.48),0.49(0.39-0.62),0.45(0.36-0.57),0.63(0.46-0.88)].In terms of health behavior rate, middle school students whose mothers are undergraduates, whose incomes were more than 8 001-15 000 and 15 000 yuan, "whose attention to epidemic situation has declined" , "whose attention is the same as that in 2020" , "who did not plan to study medicine before" , "who are determined to study medicine, and who plan to study medicine more firmly after epidemic situation " were more likely to have health behavior,[OR(95%CI)=1.29(1.04-1.60),1.39（1.07-1.82）,1.74(1.32-2.29),1.77(1.06-2.96),3.47(2.08-5.81)] ,The grade-2 high middle school students had lower probability of preventing and controlling health behaviors [OR(95%CI)=0.74(0.60-0.90)](P<0.05). Preventive knowledge and behaviors towards COVID 19 are mainly from school education, communication with parents and mobile learning.@*Conclusion@#Preventive knowledge and behaviors towards COVID 19 among Wuhan middle school students are needed to be improved and targeted health education should be implemented accordingly.