Health literacy, adherence to prevention practices, and attitudes towards caring for infectious patients among medical and nursing students - a cross-sectional study

Healthcare students' attitudes towards taking care of infectious patients and adherence to prevention measures are necessary for future epidemics, and might be defined by their level of health literacy. Therefore, we aim to describe health literacy, adherence to prevention practices, and attitudes towards taking care of infectious patients of students at Hanoi Medical University and their associated factors during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A cross-sectional study was conducted at Hanoi Medical University in April 2020, using total population sampling (N = 3,672). Data was collected using an online questionnaire consisting of demographic, academic, health-related factors, fear of COVID-19, health literacy, adherence to prevention practices, and a direct question about attitude towards taking care of infectious patients. Poisson regression was applied to assess the association between the outcome and other factors. Among 1,583 participants (43.1% response rate), the overall median Health Literacy score was 33.33 (IQR: 29.17-34.72) and was higher among participants with clinical experiences, better ability to pay for medications, and studying preventive medicine. The percentage of people having good adherence to all prevention practices was 55.1% (95% CI 52.6-57.5%). The frequency of handwashing, social distancing, and mask-wearing was 86.8% (95% CI 85.0-88.4%), 60.2% (95% CI 57.8-62.6%), and 96.5% (95% CI 95.5-97.3%), respectively. Most respondents had neutral attitudes towards caring for infectious patients (53.1%; 95% CI 50.7-55.6%). Our Poisson regression analysis showed that Health Literacy was positively associated with adherence to prevention measures. This study found no statistical correlation between Health Literacy and attitudes towards taking care of infectious patients. Health Literacy training and mental and financial support for medical undergraduates could be the key to improving health behaviors among medical students. More studies are needed to identify factors that could enhance the positive attitudes towards taking care of infectious patients in the future.