Compliance with Mask Wearing, Perception of Infection Risk, and Knowledge related to COVID-19 after The COVID-19 Pandemic

This study is designed to determine the level of mask-wearing compliance, perception of infection risk, and knowledge of COVID-19 among nursing students following the COVID-19 pandemic, validate the correlation between these, and identify variables influencing the level of maskwearing compliance.Nursing students attending two universities located in two regions, Daejeon Metropolitan City and Chungcheongnam-do, were surveyed, and data from 158 students was used for analysis.The collected data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 program.For data analysis, a t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regressions were performed.Nursing students were found to be good at preventive behaviours such as hand washing after the pandemic, but their compliance with wearing masks was low, and vaccination rates were also low.Additionally, students with a higher perception of the risk of infection were more likely to wash their hands and keep their distance.Knowledge related to COVID-19 and housing type was found to be influential factors in the degree of mask wearing.Based on the above research results, to increase the compliance rate of nursing students wearing masks, it is necessary to encourage them to practice social distancing, although it is not required.Additionally, prioritizing education to broaden understanding of infections is important.