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.