Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec 29:9:348.
doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_767_20. eCollection 2020.

Knowledge, perception, and attitudes of Universal Health Coverage policies among Alfaisal University students in Saudi Arabia

Mohamad Salim Alkodaymi  1 , Bader Abou Shaar  1 , Nader Ashraf Fawzy  1 , Rola Alhabbbash  1 , Abdulrahman Senjab  1 , Rawan AlSaoud  1
Affiliations

Knowledge, perception, and attitudes of Universal Health Coverage policies among Alfaisal University students in Saudi Arabia

Mohamad Salim Alkodaymi et al. J Educ Health Promot. .

Abstract

Background: Saudi Arabia aims to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by a combination of free public healthcare and mandatory cooperative health insurance. To ensure the effectiveness of UHC policies, every individual should have a strong knowledge of their health-care rights and the system that guarantees it.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to measure the knowledge of Alfaisal students and record their perceptions and attitudes about Saudi Arabia's basic health-care coverage structure and UHC policies.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional survey was developed with 22 items measuring knowledge and 7 items evaluating perception and attitudes and distributed through E-mail with a consecutive sampling method at Alfaisal University to achieve the required calculated sample size for March-April of 2020. The accumulated data were organized, tabulated, and statistically analyzed using 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 from 30.6% to 57.7%, with medical students admitting to similar or worse knowledge compared to their colleagues from other colleges. About 57.3% of our respondents believe the Saudi system provides effective and sufficient healthcare to all, but only 42.7% believe that the system provides financial protection to all.

Conclusion: The study showed a low level of knowledge about Saudi Arabia's UHC policies among Alfaisal students, especially among medical students, with a generally positive perception and attitudes toward them, although with some serious misconceptions that should be addressed.

Keywords: Health policy; Universal Health Coverage; healthcare.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Shatilwe JT, Mashamba-Thompson TP. Mapping evidence on access to healthcare information by women of reproductive age in low-and-middle-income countries: Scoping review protocol. Syst Rev. 2019;8:328. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Van der Wielen N, Channon AA, Falkingham J. Universal health coverage in the context of population ageing: What determines health insurance enrolment in rural Ghana? BMC Public Health. 2018;18:657. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alharbi MF. National health insurance system for universal health coverage: Prospects and challenges in Saudi Arabia. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019;6:5006–12.
    1. de Andrade LO, Pellegrini Filho A, Solar O, Rigoli F, de Salazar LM, Serrate PC, et al. Social determinants of health, universal health coverage, and sustainable development: Case studies from Latin American countries. Lancet. 2015;385:1343–51. - PubMed
    1. Giovanella L, Mendoza-Ruiz A, Pilar AC, Rosa MC, Martins GB, Santos IS, et al. Universal health system and universal health coverage: Assumptions and strategies. Cien Saude Colet. 2018;23:1763–76. - PubMed