{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,31]],"date-time":"2025-10-31T22:13:27Z","timestamp":1761948807787,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,8]],"date-time":"2022-11-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1667865600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Deputyship for Research &amp; Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia","award":["7861"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["7861"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disastrous impacts that impose the cultivation of knowledge and motivation of self-protection to foster disease containment. Aim: Evaluate the effect of digital self-learned educational intervention about COVID-19 using the protection motivation theory (PMT) on non-health students\u2019 knowledge and self-protective behaviors at Saudi Electronic University (SEU). Methods: A quasi-experimental study was accomplished at three randomly chosen branches of SEU (Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah) using a multistage sampling technique to conveniently select 219 students. An electronic self-administered questionnaire was used, which included three scales for assessing the students\u2019 knowledge, self-protective behaviors, and the constructs of the PMT. The educational intervention was designed using four stages: need assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. A peer-reviewed digital educational content was developed after assessing the participants\u2019 educational needs using the pretest. Then, distributed through their university emails. A weekly synchronous Zoom cloud meeting and daily key health messages were shared with them. Finally, the post-test was conducted after two months. Results: The mean participants\u2019 age (SD) among the experimental group was 28.94 (6.719), and the control group was 27.80 (7.256), with a high female percentage (63.4%, 73.8%) and a previous history of direct contact with verified COVID-19 patients (78.6%, 69.2%), respectively. A significant positive mean change (p = 0.000) was detected in the total COVID-19 knowledge of the experimental group post-intervention, either when it was adjusted for the covariates effect of the control group (F1 = 630.547) or the pretest (F1 = 8.585) with a large effect size (\u03b72 = 0.745, \u03b72 = 0.268, respectively). The same was proved by the ANCOVA test for the total self-protective behaviors either when it adjusted for the covariates effect of the control group (F1 = 66.671, p = 0.000) or the pretest (F1 = 5.873, p = 0.020) with a large effect size (\u03b72 = 0.236, \u03b72 = 0.164, respectively). The ANCOVA test proved that post-intervention, all the PMT constructs (perceived threats, reward appraisal, efficacy appraisal, response cost, and protection intention) and the total PMT score were significantly improved (p = 0.000) among the experimental group either when adjusted for the covariates effect of the control group (F1 = 83.835) or the pretest (F1 = 11.658) with a large effect size (\u03b72 = 0.280, \u03b72 = 0.561, respectively). Conclusions: The digital PMT-based self-learned educational intervention effectively boosts non-health university students\u2019 COVID-19 knowledge, protection motivation, and self-protective behaviors. Thus, PMT is highly praised as a basis for COVID-19-related educational intervention and, on similar occasions, future outbreaks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph192214626","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,8]],"date-time":"2022-11-08T10:53:06Z","timestamp":1667904786000},"page":"14626","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Effect of Digital-Based Self-Learned Educational Intervention about COVID-19 Using Protection Motivation Theory on Non-Health Students\u2019 Knowledge and Self-Protective Behaviors at Saudi Electronic University"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0556-5778","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Samiha Hamdi","family":"Sayed","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Damman 34223, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Department of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22511, Egypt"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8312-1005","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohammed","family":"Al-Mohaithef","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University, Damman 34223, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2866-3119","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wafaa Taha","family":"Elgzar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Maternity and Childhood Nursing, Nursing College, Najran University, Najran 66271, Saudi Arabia"},{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22516, Egypt"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"6","article-title":"Emerging coronaviruses: First SARS, second MERS and third SARS-CoV-2: Epidemiological updates of COVID-19","volume":"28","author":"Halaji","year":"2020","journal-title":"Infez. 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