Research attitudes, knowledge, experiences, and barriers among health science students at King Khalid University, Southwest of Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study.

Research is a systematic process to achieve new knowledge, science, or invention. Training in health research is an important part of medical education. This study aimed to evaluate the attitudes, knowledge, experiences, and barriers related to research among the health science students at King Khalid University, Abha. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 632 health science students of different colleges of King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. From each study level, approximately 25% of the total number of students was selected using a systematic random sampling method. Tests for associations between different scale items and the type of college were used. The majority of students were mainly aged between 20 to 25 years and were males. Statistically significant differences in age distribution among the colleges (P < .05) were found. Regarding students attitudes towards research, 80.5% of the students agreed that research gives them a better understanding of the world. About 79.6% of the total students agreed that every physician, dentist, and pharmacist should be familiar with the scientific methods of research. Statistical significant differences were found in attitudes toward research among different colleges (P < .05). Overall 56.3% of the students recorded a positive attitude regarding research. Only 2.8% of the students had a good knowledge level regarding research and 66.5% had a poor knowledge level. Considering research experience, 50.9% of the overall students self-reported that they did research during their undergraduate phase. About 22% of the students recorded a high experience level regarding research, 41.9% had a moderate level and 36.9% had a low level of experience. Lack of research experience was the most commonly recorded barrier (80.5%) followed by lack of training on how to do research (72.7%). Training on research and adequate support in student research activities at the undergraduate level may help to reduce the identified barriers to research.

Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Associated Anxiety, Fear and Preparedness Among Healthcare Students at University Teaching Hospital in KSA.

Purpose: The infectious pandemics are generally accompanied by an often-overlooked impact it has on the psychology of the masses. Healthcare students and workers are expected to develop significant levels of stress as compared to the general population. The significance of this study is to assess the depression, anxiety and stress faced by the healthcare students that may lead to unfavourable effects on learning and their overall psychological health. Methods: This assessment was done by means of an anonymous, online, closed-ended questionnaire. DASS-21 scale was the primary instrument used for this purpose. The responses were recorded on a 4-point Likert scale. Results: The study had more male students, majority were between 21 and 23 years of age, asymptomatic and almost equal proportion of students from the fraternity of dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and nursing. Dental and pharmacy students were associated with lower stress than medical students whereas nursing students experienced higher anxiety as compared to medical students. Close contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases experienced higher stress and anxiety. Daily patient exposure was associated with significantly higher stress anxiety and depression. Conclusion: Based on the observations of the present study, a support program for psychological training for these health care students should be introduced.

Knowledge, perception, and acceptance toward the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine among patients visiting dental clinics in Aseer region of KSA.

Scientists have emerged with innovative research on non-human primates showing that the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine increases neutralizing antibody levels against all variants. The current cross-sectional survey was designed to evaluate the knowledge, perception, and acceptance of the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine among the patients visiting the various dental clinics in Aseer region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A total of 609 dental patients were selected from various dental clinics by a simple random probability sampling method. The questionnaire was designed in multiple languages and categorized as demographic information, knowledge, perception, and acceptance of participants to a booster dose. An anonymous, self-administered, closed-ended online, and paper-based questionnaire was used to assess the above parameters. In the current survey, the majority of the participants were Saudis (80.8%) with an age mean of 37.7 ± 8.7 years. About 68.6% (418 out of 609) of participants had poor knowledge about the booster dose. Significant differences in the levels of knowledge were found in relation to gender, area of residency, education, nationality, and occupation. The distribution of level of perception of booster dose differs significantly among participants of different marital statuses and nationalities. Hesitation to booster was reported more in the rural than in the urban population. Despite a low level of knowledge, a higher level of good perception and acceptance of booster doses were reported among the studied population.

Challenges and Barriers Toward Medical Research Among Medical and Dental Students at King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Background: Medical research is a systematic method to obtain new knowledge, reduce diagnosis problems, discover the latest or best treatment for a disease, and also used for disease prevention. Objective: The study aims to assess the challenges and barriers to conduct medical research among medical and dentistry students and determine the reasons that hinder the conduct of the study. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the research population consisted of medical and dental students affiliated with King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia in 2020. The study followed a descriptive approach based on quantitative analysis. The Statistical Package of the Social Sciences (SPSS) program (V. 16.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for data analysis. Results: A total of 327 students participated in this study, and the response rate was 100%. Among them, 61.5% were females. In this study majority (63.3%) had a moderate attitude toward conducting medical research and the average was 56.17. The majority (53.8%) had a reasonable behavior toward conducting medical research, and the average was 29.06. Lack of time, skills, funding, facilities, and limited access to medical journals and related databases were the significant barriers found. Most of the students had positive attitudes, except that they are not awarded on their research, do not attend the sessions, and do not speak their thoughts. A significant relationship between demographic characteristics (age, level, and Grade Percentage Average), attitudes & perceived barriers toward research was found (<0.05). Conclusion: The majority of the students demonstrated a positive attitude toward and moderate behavior of research. However, most are not awarded on their research, do not attend the sessions, and do not speak their thoughts. Intensive training and adequate support in research activities of medical and dental students at the undergraduate level may help reduce these challenges and barriers toward research.