An investigation on the students’ perceptions about the Makerere University Covid-19 protocols as a preventive measure against Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess students’ knowledge and perceptions of the Makerere University Covid-19 prevention protocols to determine why some students followed the protocol and others didn’t. A cross-sectional study was adopted and primary data were collected from 100 students from the school of statistics and planning using the questionnaire method. Univariate analysis, cross-tabulations, and binary logistic regression analysis were done using STATA. In the univariate analysis, frequency tables of all variables were made and using a series of 9 questions to measure the level of knowledge about Covid-19, 16% of the respondents were found to have more Knowledge and 84% had less knowledge about covid-19 causes and prevention, 48% agreed that they could contract covid-19 within the university, 30% disagreed and 22% were undecided, 53%were unsatisfied with the covid-19 protocols, 11% were satisfied and 36% were undecided. Findings on the respondents’ perceived necessity of the Covid-19 protocols revealed that only 47% agreed that they were necessary, 41% disagreed and 12% were undecided. And 81% of the respondents followed the protocol. In the Bivariate stage of analysis, findings revealed a significant relationship between the dependent variable (Do you use SOPs within Makerere University?) and the independent variables that are; Religion, Level of perfect Knowledge about covid-19, Number of sources of information on Covid-19, the Perceived necessity of the covid-19 protocol, perceived risk of contracting covid-19 within the university, and student's satisfaction with the covid-19 protocols at (p<0.1). In the multivariate stage of analysis, findings showed that students who had less knowledge about covid-19 causes and prevention techniques were 0.955 times less likely to follow the protocol compared to those who had enough knowledge (OR=0.045). Satisfaction with the protocol was another significant predictor whereby students who were not satisfied with the protocol were 0.976 times less likely to follow the protocol compared to those that were satisfied (OR=0.024). Findings indicated a need to improve the standard of the covid-19 protocols as well as educate students more about the importance of such institutional protocols and guidelines.