Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic Among Medical Students In A Public University: A Study Protocol

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a huge impact towards the teaching and learning activities in medical schools. Due to the outbreak, the curricular activities were shifted to a mainly digitised version of learning format. The purpose of this paper is to present the study design and methodology of a population-based survey on the impact of COVID-19 among medical students. The survey aims to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on the COVID-19 pandemic, the online learning readiness and psychological status among medical students in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). A universal sampling method will be used that involve 475 medical students from Year 1 to Year 6 in USIM. The data collection will be conducted through an online survey. The questionnaire consists of three components: the study of KAP on COVID-19, the online learning readiness and psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Both of the KAP and online learning readiness questionnaire will be adopted, adapted and validated from previous research and will be based on a local study. As for the depression, anxiety and stress, the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) questionnaire will be used. Duration of data collection is expected to be one month, and findings are expected to be ready by three months from the last data collection date. The exposure variables include sociodemographic factors and years of study, while the outcomes are the KAP scores, online learning readiness level, and DASS scores. Relationships between the outcomes and associated factors will be analysed once data collection is completed.