The Accurate And Inaccurate Conceptions Acquired By Society Throughout The COVID-19 Pandemic

STUDY AIM: In this study, it was aimed to identify the accurate and inaccurate conceptions among the society on COVID-19 disease, which is considered as a public health problem and has a high risk of transmission. 

METHODS: The research was performed online at https://docs.google.com/forms in May 2020. The questionnaire form was composed of 40 queries, which were on sociodemographic characteristics and COVID-19. Following the study, the answers obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed by inserting related data to the software of SPSS. 

RESULTS: Of 580 participants involved in the study, 363 (62.6%) were female. The median age of the participants was 34.0 (18.0-77.0). Of the individuals who completed the questionnaire, 342 (59.0%) were married and 438 (75.5%) were university graduated and / or postgraduated. Of the individuals included in the study, 497 (85.6%) stated that they watched television / news channels to be informed about COVID-19. Most of the questions related to COVID-19 were answered accurately by the participants. The percentage of the premise, which was answered most accurately, was 577 (99.5%), whereas the lowest percentage of the accurately answered premise was 137 (23.6%). It was found that there was a statistically significant difference among the genders in terms of the percentage of accurate responses to the conceptions (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: It was determined that the vast majority of the participants utilized from at least one news resource on COVID-19. Participants typically have accurate knowledge about COVID-19. Educational programs can be planned to enhance the awareness of the society about the conceptions, which were answered mostly inaccurately.