Abstract:

Based on the paradigm of the knowledge society, universities implement digital resources and repositories to facilitate students' access to up-to-date knowledge, among them the databases of scientific articles. Likewise, they establish strategies to promote the use of scientific evidence by students and teachers for the application of evidence that supports our practice and transform reality through formative research, that in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on special relevance. Recent studies report that health science students are highly knowledgeable about COVID-19. These are associated with sociodemographic (sex, age, type of career studied, year of studies) and epidemiological characteristics (having relatives with a diagnosis of COVID-19); However, there are few studies that report an association between access to scientific information and knowledge about COVID-19. In this sense, the objective of the study was to determine the association between access to scientific articles and knowledge about COVID-19 in health students during a quarantine.

A cross-sectional study of a correlational type was carried out, with a population of 2569 health students, the sample obtained was 795 health students from three public universities and a non-probabilistic snowball type sampling was used. The instrument was applied using the form developed as Google Forms to those who met the inclusion criteria (informed consent, over 17 years of age, being in quarantine). The study was conducted between July and September 2020. The questions about knowledge of COVID-19 were multiple choice and formulated based on previous studies, considering the theoretical framework of the WHO and Peruvian guidelines on COVID-19. The instrument was validated by expert health professionals and through a pilot test, obtaining 0.737 in reliability through Cronbach's Alpha. For the bivariate analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskall- Wallis K test were used, with a significance level of 0.05. The study was approved by an Ethics Committee.

It was found that 72.5% of the students were female. 38.2% of students learn about COVID-19 through scientific articles. The knowledge score about COVID-19 for students who access scientific articles was higher (13.9 ± 1.5) compared to students who report through other sources (13.0 ± 1.7). This difference was statistically significant. The indicators that reported statistically significant differences according to access to scientific articles were: definition, diagnosis and prevention measures.

In conclusion, health students who have access to scientific articles have a higher knowledge score about COVID-19.

Keywords:

Coronavirus infections, students, nurse, medicine, knowledge.