Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards social distancing among undergraduate students in medical fields during rapid rise of COVID-19 in Samarinda City, Indonesia : a cross sectional study

Abstract

Social distancing is health guidelines recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) for controlling the COVID-19 transmission. Undergraduate students in medical fields had responsibility in spreading accurate health promotion during this prolong pandemic. This study aimed to determine the practice of social distancing and its associated factors, to find out the reasons for not practicing social distancing along with the source of social distancing information used by undergraduate students in medical fields in Samarinda, Indonesia. This cross-sectional online survey study (April to May 2021) involved 422 undergraduate students from medicine, public health and pharmacy faculty using convenience sampling technique. Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify factors associated with the dependent variable with a significance value <0.05. A self-administered questionnaire was validated with Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) index and reliability tested with Cronbach’s Alpha and KR 20 prior to data collection. Out of 422 respondents involved with age range 18-25 years old, dominantly female students (76.8%), and mostly are pharmacy students (45.0%). The result indicated that majority of respondents have good knowledge level (65.5%), positive attitude (53.3%), and good level practice of social distancing (52.1%). Regression analysis showed that age (AOR 1.47; 95% CI 1.97-2.22, p=0.045), sex (AOR 2.26; 95% CI 1.38-3.69, p=0.001) and attitude (AOR 2.61, 95% CI: 1.75, 3.90, p<0.001) were associated with social distancing practices. Top three source of social distancing information mainly used were social media (80.6%), websites (14.0%), and television (3.8%). Top three reasons for not practicing social distancing were 1) Social pressure, 2) work duties and 3) uncomfortable feelings. Age and sex were the important significant factors of social distancing practice among undergraduate students in medical fields. Our study findings suggest the government to disseminate more health education using social media and involve students in medical fields on deploys health campaigns.