Information and Knowledge Sources about COVID-19 amongst Final Year Medical Students in Enugu State, Nigeria: A Cross Sectional Study

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. Fortunately and unfortunately, there are various information sources out there; medical students should have optimal knowledge of COVID-19 with all forms of education explored as they would ultimately become the future physicians.

Objectives: This current study aimed to identify the knowledge about COVID-19 amongst final year medical students and various means at which they source their information.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted amongst final year medical students in the universities in Enugu State, Nigeria. An online questionnaire was distributed amongst the respondents. The SPSS software was used for analysis with p <0.05 as significant.

Results: 84.3% of the respondents first got to know about COVID-19 from the internet amongst others; only 21.9% alluded to being adequately informed about COVID-19.

Amongst those that use the internet as their predominant source of information, about 71.7% of them use Social Media as the preferred means. The most commonly used social media was WhatsApp whereas the most trusted Social Media was Twitter.

There was a significant association between age and preferred social media for assessing information (X2=30.142; df =12; p=0.03). There was no significant association between age and medium chosen as predominant source of information (X2=2.796; df =6; p=0.834).

Conclusion and Recommendation: Final year medical students showed the expected level of information and knowledge about COVID-19. Medical educators should incorporate social media in medical education especially twitter and WhatsApp, which were the most trusted media of information sources, should be employed in the dissemination of information amongst medical students and the populace in general.