COVID-19 after.sav

<b>Background</b> Despite variation in vaccine types against COVID-19 infection and continuous genetic variation in SARS-CoV-2 genome, sticking with preventive measures remains the first choice to reduce risk. <b>Method:</b> Study highlights level of IAU students’ knowledge, attitude, and practice towards SARS-CoV-2 virus infection during lockdown period. A cross-sectional study was conducted in IAU University, eastern province - Saudi Arabia. Data collected from 43 male IAU preparatory year students, through online self-structured questionnaire. Knowledge level was determined using mean score, and chi-squared test and t-test were performed to detect significant differences among various groups. <b>Results:</b> Age group 17- 20 years have better knowledge than other groups (t= 2.03, p- value= 0.049). Majority recognized the typical symptoms and transmission of infection. 93% apply social-distancing as a crucial preventive measure. Although after lockdown there was 1.7-fold increase in believing that wearing mask is an effective preventive measure, 37.2% of them do not trust this practice. Also, there was 2.2-fold increase in number of participants who got awareness program during lockdown. Level of students’ knowledge was increased from 73.2% to 81.5% after lockdown. Average knowledge about the role of contaminated tools in disease transmission increased from 33.73% to 75.48%, before and after the lockdown, respectively. After lockdown, 58.1% of participants were anxious and afraid from contact their colleagues and 39.5% missed their classes due to anxiety. Two sources of information affected participants' knowledge in the period after lockdown: university studies (t= 2.149, p- value= 0.038) and source of information from friends (t= 2.6, p- value= 0.013). <b>Conclusions:</b> Our finding suggests that IAU preparatory-year students have acceptable level of knowledge, awareness, and attitudes towards COVID-19 infection. It reflects impact of media on improvement of their preventive measures. Students’ knowledge on COVID-19 pandemic may significantly increase if proactive health education program is designed to target preparatory students.<br>