Nigerian undergraduate students’ perception towards COVID-19 prevention: Implications for policy

Objective: Universities provide a supportive and safe learning environment for students. To limit the transmission of COVID-19, the WHO has recommended several preventive measures including frequent washing of hands, hand sanitizer usage, the wearing of masks, social distancing, covering of mouth while sneezing, etc. Students need to comply with these personal hygiene practices to limit the transmission of COVID-19. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to assess the knowledge and practice of COVID-19 prevention among undergraduate students of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo Ogun State, Nigeria. 430 respondents were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows Version 21. A p-value of < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. Results: 98.8%, 96.4%, and 84.1% of the respondents knew about COVID-19, know that it is a contagious disease, and know that a virus causes COVID-19 respectively. 60.4% and 56.7% heard about COVID-19 from the news and social media and had good knowledge of COVID-19 respectively. 38.2%, 36.7%, and 63.3% of the respondents have an average level of practice of COVID-19 prevention, had been vaccinated majorly with AstraZeneca brand of vaccine (20.6%), and are yet to be vaccinated respectively. There is no association between the knowledge of the prevention of COVID-19 and practice among undergraduate students of Babcock University (0.258, χ2=5.300). Conclusion: The majority of the students had good and average knowledge of COVID-19 and its prevention respectively. There was no significant association between knowledge and practice of COVID-19 prevention.