Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo State Students toward Coronavirus Pandemic

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a pandemic requiring unprecedented measures adopted to control its rapid spread. The knowledge, attitudes and perception (KAP) of the public play a major role in the prevention and control of infectious diseases. In this study, FUTA students' KAP towards COVID-19 during the rapid rise period of the outbreak was investigated. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in FUTA in October 2021 via a self-designed questionnaire comprising 25 questions assessing KAP. Assessments on students' attitudes and perception towards COVID-19 included questions on confidence and believe in winning the war against COVID-19 such as wearing face masks and use of hands sanitizer. Among the questionnaire completed (n=402), 58.0% were men while 42.0% were female, 17.7% were from school of Agriculture, and 20.1% were in 300 level. The overall adequate knowledge on the existence of the disease was 88.6%. The majority of the respondents displayed good attitude towards the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in FUTA as 79.6% of the students were in agreement with the rules of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC). In addition, the study showed that age factors cannot affect the perception of students to COVID-19 as the P-value (0.733) is greater than 0.05.