Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward monkeypox among university health science students in Türkiye

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward monkeypox among university health science students in Türkiye | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward monkeypox among university health science students in Türkiye Ömer ATAÇ, Ayşe Nur BALCI YAPALAK, Osman HAYRAN This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6966852/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 31 Oct, 2025 Read the published version in BMC Medical Education → Version 1 posted 19 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background: The aim of this study is to examine the level of knowledge, attitudes and preventive practices regarding Mpox among health science students. Methods: This cross-sectional study is conducted among a group of students from four schools of a university in İstanbul, Türkiye. All students are invited to participate in the study voluntarily and without using any sampling method. A total of 1,466 students participated with a participation rate of 31%. Data is collected in person by using a self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions to describe demographic characteristics and to measure the level of knowledge. Attitudes and practices are evaluated by measuring the agreement level on a 5-point Likert scale of various statements. Results: Health science students have a level of knowledge slightly under half about Mpox with the mean number of correct responses of 10.09±4.22 among 22 statements. More than half (51.7%) of the participants stated positive attitudes towards the disease and only 22.9% expressed engagement in preventive practices. Social media is the primary source of information for Mpox, and it is followed by TV channels. Vaccination for Mpox is a concern, with fear of side effects being the most frequently cited reason for reluctance. Conclusion: Our study highlights the gaps in Mpox knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices among a group of university health sciences students. Low level of vaccination willingness and high proportion of social media use as an information source are the most prominent findings of the study. Willingness to vaccination is less common, primarily due to concerns about side effects. Mpox Vaccine Hesitancy Student Health Occupations Health Knowledge Attitudes Practice Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryFilempoxsurvey.docx SupplementaryTablempox.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 31 Oct, 2025 Read the published version in BMC Medical Education → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 25 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 21 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 21 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 20 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Aug, 2025 Reviews received at journal 16 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Aug, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 09 Aug, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 06 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 05 Aug, 2025 Editor invited by journal 16 Jul, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 15 Jul, 2025 First submitted to journal 15 Jul, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6966852","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":498005305,"identity":"2ca8bf44-0220-466e-952a-bd2c4558eefe","order_by":0,"name":"Ömer ATAÇ","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Istanbul Medipol University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ömer","middleName":"","lastName":"ATAÇ","suffix":""},{"id":498005306,"identity":"39a30536-3014-42de-9125-c4019ebd7ee4","order_by":1,"name":"Ayşe Nur BALCI 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All students are invited to participate in the study voluntarily and without using any sampling method. A total of 1,466 students participated with a participation rate of 31%. Data is collected in person by using a self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions to describe demographic characteristics and to measure the level of knowledge. Attitudes and practices are evaluated by measuring the agreement level on a 5-point Likert scale of various statements.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResults:\u003c/strong\u003e Health science students have a level of knowledge slightly under half about Mpox with the mean number of correct responses of 10.09±4.22 among 22 statements. More than half (51.7%) of the participants stated positive attitudes towards the disease and only 22.9% expressed engagement in preventive practices. Social media is the primary source of information for Mpox, and it is followed by TV channels. Vaccination for Mpox is a concern, with fear of side effects being the most frequently cited reason for reluctance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConclusion:\u003c/strong\u003e Our study highlights the gaps in Mpox knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices among a group of university health sciences students. Low level of vaccination willingness and high proportion of social media use as an information source are the most prominent findings of the study. Willingness to vaccination is less common, primarily due to concerns about side effects.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward monkeypox among university health science students in Türkiye","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-08-11 04:51:14","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6966852/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-08-25T05:19:27+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"118570862088706771744543320134530357499","date":"2025-08-21T17:33:00+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"227959880124296830552405529553784924468","date":"2025-08-21T07:33:05+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-20T14:08:35+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-20T13:34:27+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"88060724521342663954252776419565105027","date":"2025-08-20T09:55:24+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-20T09:51:00+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"250603177946314332858663030755974596469","date":"2025-08-20T08:46:50+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"253531749876791052938247779449818972046","date":"2025-08-20T07:38:32+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"31179869341372839594291694878804614017","date":"2025-08-19T19:22:43+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"87949144722227039691349104275213116375","date":"2025-08-19T19:00:59+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-08-16T19:38:15+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"50638264049919790178707066735013348363","date":"2025-08-15T09:08:54+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"68993316192817340840911654655597210737","date":"2025-08-09T08:24:30+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-08-06T15:53:05+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-08-05T08:17:55+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-07-16T05:20:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-07-15T12:21:44+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Medical Education","date":"2025-07-15T12:20:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-medical-education","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"meed","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Medical Education](http://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/meed/default.aspx","title":"BMC Medical Education","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6dc2652c-6d29-491c-8017-3b44fcdf5982","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 11th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-03T16:00:49+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-6966852","link":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-08090-x","journal":{"identity":"bmc-medical-education","isVorOnly":false,"title":"BMC Medical Education"},"publishedOn":"2025-10-31 15:57:29","publishedOnDateReadable":"October 31st, 2025"},"versionCreatedAt":"2025-08-11 04:51:14","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1186/s12909-025-08090-x","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-08090-x","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6966852","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6966852","identity":"rs-6966852","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}