Since our project is based on the herpes simplex virus, and an important part of our job is to educate and communicate science, we wanted to bring awareness about this pathogen to the public. To do that regardless of the location of the people, we used an online format and reached people through our Instagram account. In the multiple choice quiz our team created we combined a survey of stakeholders with an informative context. Our objective was to find out how much the public knows about the herpes simplex virus and whether people who are infected with it know significantly more. At the same time we had the chance to inform participants and fill their knowledge gaps by correcting their false answers and giving additional information. To be inclusive the quiz was written in german and english. You can download the questions of the quiz as a pdf here. The participants stayed anonymous and their answers were solely linked to their age, gender and whether they have herpes. 79 people participated in our quiz, giving us enough data to analyze. The quiz contained 9 questions and the average was 6.68, meaning the participants either already knew a lot about herpes or we could have made the quiz more difficult. The point distribution is shown in Figure 1.
Since we used Instagram to promote our quiz, 87% of participants were below the age of 25 as you can see in Figure 2.
77.6% of people answered that they do not have herpes, supporting the fact that most people are not aware that they are infected (Figure 3). Often missed questions, with a failing rate of over 35%, were “Where does herpes not break out?”, “Which gender is more often infected with genital herpes?” and “Can a mother infected with herpes transmit the disease to her unborn child?”. To find correlations between score and age, score and gender and most importantly score and herpes infection, we asked a psychology student for help. Based on our data there were no significant correlations to be found.
To find correlations between score and age, score and gender and most importantly score and herpes infection, we asked a psychology student for help. Based on our data there were no significant correlations to be found.
