Medical Students' Awareness of Smell Loss as a Predictor for Coronavirus Disease 2019.
Front Public Health
; 8: 597897, 2020.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1000218
ABSTRACT
Background:
Anosmia has been reported as an early presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the pathophysiological mechanism of olfactory dysfunction is still unclear.Aim:
The aim of this study to evaluate the knowledge regarding common symptoms, anosmia, treatment options, and PPE among medical students in three different universities of Saudi Arabia.Methods:
This cross-sectional survey conducted among medical students in Saudi Arabia. Google Forms was used to create the survey. The questionnaire included demographic information, knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms, sources of information, and the level of awareness of specific symptoms (loss of smell and taste).Results:
A total of 494 students completed the questionnaire. The majority of the participants were aware of common COVID-19 symptoms like fever and cough (79.8 and 67.2%, respectively), but less than half were aware that smell or taste dysfunction might be a symptom of COVID-19 (44.3 and 30.2%, respectively). The present study revealed that the source of information also plays a critical role in medical students' awareness regarding the symptoms of COVID-19. Students using international organization's websites, medical databases, or published research had better knowledge of anosmia as a COVID-19 symptom compared to those who used WhatsApp, Google, or unofficial social media pages. In our study, a minority (11.9%) of the participants relied on unofficial social media pages as the main source of their information.Conclusion:
Saudi medical students understand that smell or taste dysfunction can be a potential symptom of COVID-19, but this knowledge was not as widespread as the knowledge regarding the most common COVID-19 symptoms.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Students, Medical
/
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Anosmia
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Front Public Health
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Fpubh.2020.597897
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