Misconceptions Related to Covid-19 Infection Among the Medical Students During the Early Part of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread controversies related to the transmission, treatment, prevention, and management of COVID-19 infection. Medical students have been involved in patient care across the globe and many a times the general public looks forward towards the medical professionals to get proper information about various issues related to COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate the knowledge and misconceptions held by the medical students on various aspects of COVID-19 infection. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted through the Survey Monkey® platform using the Whatsapp®, among the medical undergraduate students of a tertiary care Institute of Eastern India. RESULTS: 236 medical students (of different years of medical training/MBBS) participated in the survey and the response rate to the survey was 47.2%. The mean age of the participants was 20.91 (SD-1.86) years, and about three-fifths were males (58.5%). One-third students were either in their first year of MBBS (31.8%) or the final year (35.16%) of MBBS. Incorrect beliefs related to various preventive aspects, risk of increasing chance of getting infection and modes of spread of infection were present in a significant proportion of students, with a wide variation for specific issues. When the number of participants with at least one incorrect related to any of the aspects of COVID-19 infection was evaluated, it ranged from 59% to 85% in different domains. CONCLUSIONS: This survey highlights the widespread prevalence of misconceptions about various aspects of COVID-19 among medical students, which needs to be addressed by proper education and awareness.