Medical Students' Awareness of Smell Loss as a Predictor for Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Anosmia has been reported as an early presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, the pathophysiological mechanism of olfactory dysfunction is still unclear. The aim of this study to evaluate the knowledge regarding common symptoms, anosmia, treatment options, and PPE among medical students in three different universities of Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional survey conducted among medical students in Saudi Arabia. Google Forms was used to create the survey. The questionnaire included demographic information, knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms, sources of information, and the level of awareness of specific symptoms (loss of smell and taste). A total of 494 students completed the questionnaire. The majority of the participants were aware of common COVID-19 symptoms like fever and cough (79.8 and 67.2%, respectively), but less than half were aware that smell or taste dysfunction might be a symptom of COVID-19 (44.3 and 30.2%, respectively). The present study revealed that the source of information also plays a critical role in medical students' awareness regarding the symptoms of COVID-19. Students using international organization's websites, medical databases, or published research had better knowledge of anosmia as a COVID-19 symptom compared to those who used WhatsApp, Google, or unofficial social media pages. In our study, a minority (11.9%) of the participants relied on unofficial social media pages as the main source of their information. Saudi medical students understand that smell or taste dysfunction can be a potential symptom of COVID-19, but this knowledge was not as widespread as the knowledge regarding the most common COVID-19 symptoms.