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Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan.

ABSTRACT: The world has been afflicted heavily by the burden of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that overwhelmed health care systems and caused severe economic and educational deficits, in addition to anxiety among the public. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the mutual effects of belief that the pandemic was the result of a conspiracy on knowledge and anxiety levels among students at the University of Jordan (UJ). An electronic-based survey was conducted between 29 March, 2020 and 31 March, 2020. The targeted population involved all undergraduate and postgraduate students from the health, scientific and humanities schools at UJ. Survey sections included 26 items on: socio-demographic information, knowledge and sources of information about the disease, attitude towards the false notion that COVID-19 stemmed from a conspiracy and items to assess the anxiety level among students during the quarantine period. The total number of participants was 1540 students. The mean age of study participants was 22 years and females predominated the study population (n = 1145, 74.4%). The majority of participants perceived the disease as moderately dangerous (n = 1079, 70.1%). Males, Jordanians and participants with lower income were more inclined to feel that COVID-19 is very dangerous. A lower level of knowledge and a higher level of anxiety about COVID-19 were associated with the belief that the disease is part of a conspiracy. Females and participants with lower income were more likely to believe that the disease is related to conspiracy. Belief in conspiracy regarding the origin of COVID-19 was associated with misinformation about the availability of a vaccine and the therapeutic use of antibiotics for COVID-19 treatment. The Ministry of Health in Jordan was the most common source of information about COVID-19 reported by the participants (n = 1018). The false belief that COVID-19 was the result of a global conspiracy could be the consequence of a lower level of knowledge about the virus and could lead to a higher level of anxiety, which should be considered in the awareness tools of various media platforms about the current pandemic.

SUBMITTER: Sallam M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7399915 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan.

Sallam Malik M Dababseh Deema D Yaseen Alaa' A Al-Haidar Ayat A Ababneh Nidaa A NA Bakri Faris G FG Mahafzah Azmi A

International journal of environmental research and public health 20200708 14

The world has been afflicted heavily by the burden of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that overwhelmed health care systems and caused severe economic and educational deficits, in addition to anxiety among the public. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the mutual effects of belief that the pandemic was the result of a conspiracy on knowledge and anxiety levels among students at the University of Jordan (UJ). An electronic-based survey was conducted between 29 March, 2020 and 31 March, ...[more]

PMID: 32650409

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Project description:Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide, and it was officially declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Most countries over the entire globe have reported some COVID-19 cases. The current study aimed to assess student knowledge about COVID-19 at different Jordanian universities and determine where they sourced their information. Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2,083 undergraduate or postgraduate students from different governmental and private universities during the initial stage of the disease in Jordan (March 19-21, 2020) using a validated, structured, self-administered, online questionnaire. The survey was structured to assess their knowledge about viral sources, incubation period, mortality rate, transmission, symptoms and complications as well as the source of information about COVID-19. Results:Overall, 56.5% of the respondents showed good knowledge and almost 40.5% showed moderate knowledge. On the other hand, 3.0% of the participants showed poor knowledge about COVID-19. The average knowledge score of students was 80.1%, which is considered to be within the scale of good knowledge. Both the college of study and educational level significantly (P < 0.05) associated with student knowledge. Students who majored in medical sciences showed the highest mean score of 82.8%, with 69.0% displaying a good knowledge level. Postgraduate students had significantly higher knowledge scores compared to undergraduate students. The majority of students used the internet, social media and mass media as sources of information about COVID-19. Scientific websites and articles were used more commonly by medical and postgraduate students. Conclusions:The COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge to the health of the world population; therefore, these results assessing students' knowledge provide an important baseline for planning required educational interventions such as contact tracing and self-quarantine. These results may also help public health authorities by engaging communities in implementation of protective health measures, including positive hygienic practices such as hand washing to reduce the risk of COVID-19.

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Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan.

Publications

Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan.

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