University Students' Cough Etiquette Knowledge and Practice to Protect Droplet Infection

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This survey aimed to identify cough etiquette knowledge and practice level among university students. METHODS: 190 study subject were recruited from a university located in C city of Korea and data were collected utilizing self-reported questionnaires to evaluate cough etiquette knowledge and practice levels. RESULTS: The score of cough etiquette knowledge was 7.38 out of 12 and the correct answer rate was 61.5%. The respondents showed the highest right answer rate (85.3%) on 'cover with a paper tissue or a handkerchief while coughing' and lowest (20.7%) on 'cover with hand while coughing'. Practice level score was 27.28 out of 48. Among those items of practice, 'wearing a mask while coughing' was the lowest (1.40/48) level of practice. And the correlation between knowledge and practice was not significant. CONCLUSION: Cough etiquette knowledge and practice level was revealed to be rather low among university students. Education and social marketing are needed to be developed to encourage the practice level of cough etiquette followed by better droplet infection control and health promotion.