Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Description of the Questionnaire
2.2. Ethical Permission
2.3. COVID-19 Knowledge Score (K-Score) Calculation
2.4. Anxiety Score Calculation
2.5. Statistical Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Characteristics of the Study Population
3.2. Knowledge of COVID-19 Transmission, Prevention and Control
3.3. Attitude Towards COVID-19
3.4. Correlation of COVID-19 Knowledge to Different Variables
3.5. Anxiety Level in Relation to Other Variables
3.6. Association of Belief in Conspiracy with Other Variables
3.7. Sources of Information Regarding COVID-19
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
COVID-19 | Coronavirus disease 2019 |
GAD-7 | 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale |
JOD | Jordanian dinar |
K-score | COVID-19 knowledge score |
K–W | Kruskal-Wallis test |
MERS | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus |
MoH | Jordanian Ministry of Health |
M–W | Mann-Whitney U test |
SARS | Severe acute respiratory syndrome |
SARS-CoV-2 | Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 |
UJ | University of Jordan |
WHO | World Health Organization |
χ2 | Chi-squared test |
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Characteristic | N 1 (%) |
---|---|
Age (median, SD 2) | 21 (3.7) |
Gender | |
Male | 394 (25.6) |
Female | 1145 (74.4) |
Nationality | |
Jordanian | 1386 (90.2) |
Non-Jordanian3 | 151 (9.8) |
Program 4 | |
BSc | 1378 (89.5) |
MSc | 138 (9.0) |
PhD | 24 (1.6) |
Schools 5 | |
Health6 | 664 (48.5) |
Scientific7 | 392 (28.6) |
Humanities8 | 313 (22.9) |
Marital status | |
Single | 1440 (94.1) |
Married | 85 (5.6) |
Divorced | 6 (0.4) |
Monthly income 9 | |
Less than JOD 50010 | 397 (25.8) |
JOD 500–1000 | 646 (41.9) |
More than JOD 1000 | 497 (32.3) |
Feature | Nationality | Gender | Schools of UJ 1 | Monthly Income of the Family 2 | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jordanian | Non-Jordanian 3 | Male | Female | Health and Scientific Schools 4 | Humanities Schools 5 | Less than JOD 500 6 | JOD 500–1000 | More than JOD 1000 | ||||||
Survey item | Response | N 7 (%) | N (%) | p-value 8 | N (%) | N (%) | p-value | N (%) | N (%) | p-value | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | p-value |
Is COVID-19 dangerous? 9 | Not dangerous | 26 (1.9) | 7 (4.6) | 0.020 | 9 (2.3) | 24 (2.1) | <0.001 | 24 (2.3) | 8 (2.6) | <0.001 | 10 (2.5) | 10 (1.5) | 13 (2.6) | <0.001 |
Moderately dangerous | 965 (69.6) | 112 (74.2) | 233 (59.1) | 845 (73.8) | 782 (74.1) | 191 (61.0) | 236 (59.4) | 469 (72.6) | 374 (75.3) | |||||
Very dangerous | 395 (28.5) | 32 (21.2) | 152 (38.6) | 276 (24.1) | 250 (23.7) | 114 (36.4) | 151 (38.0) | 167 (25.9) | 110 (22.1) | |||||
Coronavirus infection can be treated using an antibiotic | Correct response | 1226 (88.5) | 137 (90.7) | 0.403 | 348 (88.3) | 1016 (88.7) | 0.826 | 965 (91.4) | 249 (79.6) | <0.001 | 337 (84.9) | 577 (89.3) | 451 (90.7) | 0.018 |
Incorrect response | 160 (11.5) | 14 (9.3) | 46 (11.7) | 129 (11.3) | 91 (8.6) | 64 (20.4) | 60 (15.1) | 69 (10.7) | 46 (9.3) | |||||
There is a vaccine available for COVID-19 | Correct response | 1288 (92.9) | 143 (94.7) | 0.414 | 370 (93.9) | 1062 (92.8) | 0.436 | 990 (93.8) | 284 (90.7) | 0.065 | 359 (90.4) | 602 (93.2) | 472 (95.0) | 0.029 |
Incorrect response | 98 (7.1) | 8 (5.3) | 24 (6.1) | 83 (7.2) | 66 (6.3) | 29 (9.3) | 38 (9.6) | 44 (6.8) | 25 (5.0) | |||||
Summer heat can kill the COVID-19 virus | Correct response | 820 (59.2) | 98 (64.9) | 0.172 | 235 (59.6) | 684 (59.7) | 0.974 | 701 (66.4) | 135 (43.1) | <0.001 | 198 (49.9) | 388 (60.1) | 333 (67.0) | <0.001 |
Incorrect response | 566 (40.8) | 53 (35.1) | 159 (40.4) | 461 (40.3) | 355 (33.6) | 178 (56.9) | 199 (50.1) | 258 (39.9) | 164 (33.0) | |||||
Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a global conspiracy theory? | No | 458 (33.0) | 58 (38.4) | 0.402 | 163 (41.4) | 355 (31.0) | 0.001 | 395 (37.4) | 82 (26.2) | <0.001 | 101 (25.4) | 213 (33.0) | 204 (41.0) | <0.001 |
Yes | 228 (16.5) | 24 (15.9) | 51 (12.9) | 202 (17.6) | 144 (13.6) | 69 (22.0) | 80 (20.2) | 107 (16.6) | 66 (13.3) | |||||
Maybe | 700 (50.5) | 69 (45.7) | 180 (45.7) | 588 (51.4) | 517 (49.0) | 162 (51.8) | 216 (54.4) | 326 (50.5) | 227 (45.7) |
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Share and Cite
Sallam, M.; Dababseh, D.; Yaseen, A.; Al-Haidar, A.; Ababneh, N.A.; Bakri, F.G.; Mahafzah, A. Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 4915. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17144915
Sallam M, Dababseh D, Yaseen A, Al-Haidar A, Ababneh NA, Bakri FG, Mahafzah A. Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(14):4915. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17144915
Chicago/Turabian StyleSallam, Malik, Deema Dababseh, Alaa’ Yaseen, Ayat Al-Haidar, Nidaa A. Ababneh, Faris G. Bakri, and Azmi Mahafzah. 2020. "Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated with Lower Knowledge and Higher Anxiety Levels Regarding COVID-19 among Students at the University of Jordan" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 14: 4915. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17144915