Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Bani Hani, Amjad
• Alaridah, Nader
• Abu Abeeleh, Mahmoud
• Shatarat, Amjad
• Rayyan, Rama
• Kamal, Amer
• Alhafez, Laila
• Odeh, Rasha
• Al-Taher, Raed Nael

Titel

Medical students and risk of COVID-19 infection: A descriptive cross-sectional study from the University of Jordan

Ist Teil von

• Annals of medicine and surgery, 2021-10, Vol.70, p.102775, Article 102775

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with increasing morbidity and mortality has impacted the lives of the global population, including medical education. With the return of on-site medical education in Jordan, it is important to know whether this would pose any risk of COVID-19 infection in medical students. To investigate COVID-19 infection infection rates among medical students and whether there is difference between preclinical and clinical students’ infection rate. The study is a cross-sectional study, designed to (1) determine the incidence of COVID-19 in clinical and preclinical medical students (2) determine if there is a difference in infection rates between clinical and preclinical students. The study was situated at the University of Jordan and its affiliated hospitals. Data were collected from the 4th of December 2020 till the 17th of February 2021through a structured web-based questionnaire. A total of 1,830 responses were retrieved. Thirty-nine percent were males, and (61.5%) were females. Overall, 237(13%) of students reported testing positive for COVID-19 infection by PCR, of which 123 were clinical students (15.2%) and 114 were pre-clinical students (11.2%), representing a relative risk of 1.36 of COVID-19 infection among clinical students compared to pre-clinical students. This difference is statistically significant (P = 0.010). Rates of COVID-19 in females 13%; CI 7.5,18.4), were very close to those of males (12.9%; 95% CI 6.0,19.8). Positive COVID-19 cases peaked in November and October forming 36.3% and 32.9% of the cases, respectively. The incidence of positive COVID-19 tests was found to be higher among clinical students as compared to pre-clinical students. Commitment to general health safety precautions did not appear to be protective enough for clinical students. It is fundamental that additional strategies, including access to vaccines, are set, and deficiencies in current protections are identified to maintain students’ safety and well-being. •Clinical medical students are more likely to contract COVID-19 infection than pre-clinical medical students.•The risk of contracting the virus may be increased by spending long hours in the hospital and the social behaviors of students.•Additional strategies, such as vaccinations, should be implemented to protect students.•Deficiencies in current protections should be identified to maintain students' and their contacts safety and well-being.