Items from the respective knowledge/attitude domain analyzed with ANOVA.

<p>Items from the respective knowledge/attitude domain analyzed with ANOVA.</p

Development of stereotypes in test and control group (domain 4).

<p>Shown are solution rates (mean of all stereotype-related items). For descriptives see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0150014#pone.0150014.s003" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>.</p

Development of seizure-related knowledge in test and control group (domain 1).

<p>Shown are solution rates (mean of all seizure-related items). For descriptives see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0150014#pone.0150014.s003" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>.</p

Development of first aid-related knowledge in test and control group (domain 5).

<p>Shown are solution rates (mean of all first aid-related-related items). For descriptives see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0150014#pone.0150014.s003" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>.</p

Development of medical knowledge in test and control group (domain 3).

<p>Shown are solution rates (mean of all medical knowledge-related items). For descriptives see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0150014#pone.0150014.s003" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>.</p

"The evil virus cell": Students‘ knowledge and beliefs about viruses

<div><p>Education about virus biology at school is of pivotal interest to raise public awareness concerning means of disease transmission and, thus, methods to prevent infection, and to reduce unnecessary antibiotic treatment due to patient pressure on physicians in case of viral diseases such as influenza. This study aimed at making visible the knowledge of Austrian high school and university students with respect to virus biology, virus structure and health-education issues. The data presented here stem from comprehensive questionnaire analyses, including the task to draw a virus, from a cross-sectional study with 133 grade 7 and 199 grade 10 high school students, and 133 first-year biology and 181 first-year non-biology university students. Analyses were performed both quantitatively and qualitatively. ANOVA revealed a highly significant group effect for total knowledge relating to virus biology and health issues (<i>F</i>(3, 642) = 44.17, <i>p</i> < 0.01, η²p = 0.17). Specific post-hoc tests by means of the Tukey test showed significant differences between all groups (<i>p</i> < .01) with the exception of 1^st year non-biology students and grade 10 high school students. Students enrolled in university-level biology outperformed all other groups, even though they had not yet encountered this topic at their courses; part of this phenomenon might be due to their affinity for learning about biological topics. However, even many first-year biology students had a high number of severe misconceptions, e.g., defining a virus as a pro- or eukaryotic cell, or falsely naming malaria as a viral disease. Since there was no significant difference in virus-related knowledge between high schools, virus biology seems to have been taught similarly among the tested schools. However, the majority of participants stated that the virus-related knowledge they had acquired at school was not sufficient. Based on the results presented here we urgently suggest improving and intensifying teaching this topic at school, since virus-related knowledge was by far too fragmentary among many participants. Such lack of health-relevant knowledge may contribute to pressure on physicians by patients to unnecessarily prescribe antibiotics, and possibly lead to potentially dangerous neglect concerning vaccination. The effectiveness of newly developed virus-related teaching units and material could be tested with the instrument used here.</p></div