Is It Necessary to Maintain Social Distancing During the Covid-19 Pandemic? An Assessment of Students’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice

Social distancing is one of the most effective methods to control the transmission of Covid-19. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of social distancing in the students of Iranshahr University of Medical Sciences.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 342 students of Iranshahr University of Medical Sciences. Sampling was performed electronically using the availability sampling method. Data collection tools were a questionnaire of demographic information and a questionnaire designed for measuring students’ social distancing knowledge, attitude, and practice. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistical tests at the 0.05 significance level.

The mean age of participants was 21.56±2.112. Out of 342 participants, 222 (64.9%) were female, 84.2% were single, and 84.8% were living in urban areas. The median of social distancing knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were 6±1, 48±4, and 16±3, respectively. Out of the 342 surveyed students, 85.4% showed a good level of social distancing knowledge, 76% showed a good attitude towards social distancing, 22.8% showed moderate attitude, and none (0%) showed poor attitude. However, only 0.6% of the surveyed students earned good social distancing practice scores.

Despite the good social distancing knowledge and attitude scores of the surveyed students, they were doing poorly in practicing social distancing. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Social Distancing, Covid-19, Coronavirus