Impact of Educational Intervention on Secondary School Students’ Knowledge, Practices and Attitudes Regarding to COVID-19

Abstract Background: Coronavirus pandemic disease 2019 is considered an emerging respiratory disease that is highly infectious and is caused by coronavirus and was detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Coronavirus has affected educational systems worldwide and led to the total closures of schools, universities, and colleges, in the middle of March 2020. The study aimed to evaluate the impact of educational intervention on secondary school students’ knowledge, practical knowledge and attitudes regarding to COVID-19. Methods: A pre/post quasi-experimental design was adopted. A total of 260 students were selected at secondary school students in Sohag City in the study from 20 April to 2 May 2020. The tools utilized in this study consists of: A self-administered questionnaire which contains four parts to assess secondary school students' demographic, knowledge regarding COVID -19, the attitude toward COVID -19 and practice regarding COVID -19 and health education Arabic booklet was prepared by the researchers. The COVID-19 related questionnaire was designed using Google forms regarding the COVID-19, the link of the survey was sent to the respondents via Facebook and Whatsapp groups. Results: A statistically significant difference between secondary students' knowledge attitudes, and practices before and after educational intervention. 202 (77.7%) had a poor pretest attitude level followed by fair (20.0%) and good 6 (2.3%). In the posttest, all 260 students had a good attitude level which improved after educational intervention implementation. (57.7%) had poor pretest practice levels followed by fair (38.3%) and good 10 (4.0%). Recommendations: It is important to encourage cooperation between educational institutions, medical care providers, and health personnel to educate secondary school students about COVID-19.