Knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 among nursing students of the University of Palermo: Results from an online survey

Introduction. The aim of the study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices towards SARS-CoV-2 among nursing students of University of Palermo during the rapid rise period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods. This is cross-sectional study. A survey was provided to all nursing students and consisted of two parts: demographics and Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) survey. A multivariate linear regression model was used and adjusted Odds Ratios (aOR) are presented. Results. 575 students were interviewed, and their mean age was 22.29 ± 4.2. The overall score indicates good knowledge (p=0.046) and good practices among the four courses of study (p=0.038). Multivariate linear regression showed that Attitude score (b = -0.29;p = 0.024) and Knowledge score (b = 0.10;p = 0.026) adjusted for age, gender, year of study, perceived economic status, perceived health status were significantly associated with Practice score. Conclusion. Our results suggest that proper health education is useful for encouraging optimistic attitudes and maintaining safe practices among future category of nurses.