This study assessed the perception and practice of university students regarding COVID-19 and its related factors with infection prevention practices. The levels of good practice towards COVID-19 were 37.5%, 95% CI (33.7–41.2).
The overall prevention practice was consistent with study findings from Pakistan (29), Mizan Tepi (17), Gondar (30), and Dire Dawa (31), in which 36.5%, 42%, 41.6%, and 40.7% of university students had good prevention practices, respectively. This low practice might be due to a significant number of cases and deaths are not reported in Ethiopia as of Europeans and Americans. Besides, the communities are careless and ignorant of the impacts of the pandemics. The people undermine the virus believing that they are safe, will not be infected and the virus is self-limiting. Even, some communities believe that COVID-19 is not a real pandemic rather the government uses it for political profit (31).
On the other hand, it was lower than 60.8% from Cameroon (32), 65% from South Wollo (23), and 59.8% from Addis Ababa (33). This could be related to the difference in the cut-values, i.e., this study used 75% cut of point to categorize prevention practice while former studies used 80% and above. Besides, it may be due to variations in the sample size and study period. Our study was conducted during school resumption when students just get back to school, however, the Cameroon, South Wollo, and Addis Ababa studies were conducted during the rapid spread of the virus, April to May 2020. This was the time that most communities perceive the virus as dangerous and practice precautionary actions.
However, this level was higher than the findings from South Ethiopia (34), in which only 20% of participants practiced COVID-19 prevention behaviors. The differences might have been subjected to variations in the study populations. This study sampled university students, who were supposed to have a better educational background and access to information, however, the study in South Ethiopia included community members, where most are rural residents and attended only primary school.
Besides, this study found that about one-third (32%) of students had a high perception of the national efforts at controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half of the students (57.2%) agreed that the Ethiopian government had taken preventative measures early. However, only 42.5% think that local authorities have sufficient tools to deal with confirmed and suspected cases of COVID-19. This was comparable with the study report from Egypt and Nigeria, where only 22% of the populations were satisfied with their country’s handling of the pandemic (25). However, 62.1% had a satisfactory perception of the global efforts at controlling the virus and preventing further spread. Moreover, in Libya, 73.8% of students are confident that their country can win the battle against COVID-19 (27).
Female students were more likely to have good COVID-19 prevention practices compared to males (AOR (CI) = 1.67(1.17–2.37). Similarly in Hong Kong male participants were less likely to implement prevention measures (35). Besides another study in Ethiopia found that females had better compliance with prevention measures (36). Many studies concluded that females are more cautious, sensitive, and preventive (24, 31). This might be due to females spent most of their time at home, and commonly involved in childcare and food preparation. Thus, they are naturally more prone to practice precautionary measures, i.e., hand washing, and keeping physical distance, to protect themselves and others. Besides, females had a high-risk perception towards COVID-19 (37). Perception of greater risk is associated with the adoption of health preventive behaviors (38).
Students from the rural residence were more likely to practice COVID-19 prevention measures compared to their counterparts (AOR (CI) = 1.56(1.07–2.29). Comparable findings were reported from Mizan Tepi University, where rural residency was positively associated with practice (17). This contradicts with a study from China (39), Gondar (30), and South Wollo (23), where the odds of practice among students from the urban residence were more likely than rural. The findings from the current study suggest that the dissemination of information through social and news media, mobile phones, and public information campaigns has not brought the difference in implementation of prevention measures, as it is expected that living in urban is easy to access information than rural. Further research may be needed to clarify these discordant findings.
Prevention practice was significantly higher among students whose fathers had attended higher education compared to those students whose fathers had no formal education (AOR (CI) = 1.94(1.06–3.56). Similarly, in southern Ethiopia, a significant positive association was reported (34) Further, an online survey indicated poor prevention practices among low-educated people (36). This could be because educated people are more likely to use social media, scientific websites, articles, and news media, which in turn increases the access to information regarding precaution measures. Besides, educational level was significantly related to knowledge of COVID-19 prevention behaviors (40). Consecutively, good knowledge increases the chance of adopting health prevention practices (30).
Increased odds of practice were noted among students with respiratory disease. Students who had a chronic respiratory disease were approximately three times to have good prevention practice (AOR (CI) = 2.81(1.32–5.95). Similarly, in Dire Dawa (31) and Gedeo Zone (34), participants with chronic medical illnesses, i.e., hypertension, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and heart disease were more likely to practice prevention methods. The justification might be patients with chronic illness have altered local/systemic immune response and host microbiome. Thus, patients with chronic conditions are at increased risk of developing severe disease from the virus, hospital admission, and death. In one meta-analysis study, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a five-fold increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection (41). Hence, they have a high chance of caring regularly for themselves.
This study depicted that, students who obtain information from YouTube were more likely to experience prevention behaviors (AOR (CI) = 1.87(1.19–2.91). This result was supported by a former study finding from Jordan, in which the use of social media platforms, i.e., Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and others, positively influence public health behavioral changes and public health protection against COVID-19 (42). Besides, in the Amhara region, social media was a significant predictor of good knowledge and practice of COVID-19 (43). This could be due to ease of use and access of the service everywhere and every time using mobile internet. The potential advantages of social media platforms include enhanced public awareness, improved health outcomes, promotion of healthy behavior, dissemination of public health interventions, and provision of health information to the community. Thus, everyone can quickly access up-to-date information using these media. However, informants, i.e., the World Health Organization, Government, and Ministry of Health, need to assess the media preference of students and the community to offer information regarding COVID-19.
Moreover, students who had a high perception of the national efforts at controlling and preventing COVID-19 were three times more likely to have good prevention practice (AOR (CI) = 2.94(2.04–4.25). A consistent finding was reported from the US, in which students with greater perceptions were more likely to implement health-protective behaviors to avoid COVID-19 (38). High perception is important for enhancing protection and control priorities against COVID-19 infection.