Gender and career path association with fear and adherence to Covid-19 protocols among university students

The study explored the association between gender and fear of Covid-19 and compliance with its safety protocols among health and non-health university students. The study sought to ascertain whether fear of Covid-19 and adherence to its protective measures would vary between male and female students of health-care and non-healthcare university students. Using a cross-sectional quantitative research design, a convenient sample of 1119 undergraduate students selected from two universities in the Volta Region of Ghana completed self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Mann Whitney U-test were conducted using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 and R software. There was no significant difference (p = 0.14) in the fear of Covid-19 levels of male and female undergraduate students. However, there were significant differences in the adherence to Covid-19 safety measures between male and female students (p = 0.01). Lastly, fear of Covid-19 and adherence to its safety measures differed significantly between healthcare and non-healthcare students (p = 0.00). Among students, fear of Covid-19 was independent of gender. However, female students are better adherents of Covid-19 safety measures than males. Also, non-healthcare students are more likely to experience greater fear of Covid-19 and adhere to its safety measures than their healthcare counterparts.