Knowledge and attitudes of pharmacy students about COVID-19

Abstract

The level of knowledge about COVID-19 varies among students in the field of healthcare. In this study, it was aimed to compare pharmacy students’ level of knowledge about COVID-19 before and after an educational seminar. This study was conducted in the first wave of COVID-19 and just at the beginning of the pandemic. A seminar on COVID-19 and protection ways was presented by an infectious disease physician to the pharmacy students in a faculty of pharmacy from Ankara. Before and after the seminar, a questionnaire about COVID-19 consisting of 17 multiple-choice or open-ended questions was applied to the students. A total of 114 pharmacy students (46.5% female) attended the seminar and all of them participated in the study. The most common information resources in terms of COVID-19 that were used by the participants was internet (non-scientific resources) (n=90, 78.9%), classical media (TV, newspaper) (n=79, 69.3%) and social media (n=77, 67.5%). The rates of knowing that the coronavirus is a zoonotic virus (p