. Mohamad Salim Alkodaymi; . Bader Abou Shaar; . Nader Ashraf Fawzy; Rola Alhabbbash .; . Abdulrahman Senjab; . Rawan AlSaoud
Volume 10, Issue 12 , December 2020, , Pages 1-9
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Saudi Arabia aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by a combinationof free public healthcare and mandatory cooperative health insurance. To ensure the effectivenessof ...
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BACKGROUND: Saudi Arabia aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by a combinationof free public healthcare and mandatory cooperative health insurance. To ensure the effectivenessof UHC policies, every individual should have a strong knowledge of their health‑care rights and thesystem that guarantees it.OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to measure the knowledge of Alfaisal students and recordtheir perceptions and attitudes about Saudi Arabia’s basic health‑care coverage structure and UHCpolicies.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross‑sectional survey was developed with 22 items measuringknowledge and 7 items evaluating perception and attitudes and distributed through E‑mail with aconsecutive sampling method at Alfaisal University to achieve the required calculated sample sizefor March–April of 2020. The accumulated data were organized, tabulated, and statistically analyzedusing SPSS software. Comparison between two groups and more was made using the Chi‑square test.RESULTS: Students’ self‑reported knowledge on the three main knowledge questions ranged from30.6% to 57.7%, with medical students admitting to similar or worse knowledge compared to theircolleagues from other colleges. About 57.3% of our respondents believe the Saudi system provideseffective and sufficient healthcare to all, but only 42.7% believe that the system provides financialprotection to all.CONCLUSION: The study showed a low level of knowledge about Saudi Arabia’s UHC policiesamong Alfaisal students, especially among medical students, with a generally positive perceptionand attitudes toward them, although with some serious misconceptions that should be addressed.