A study of community knowledge, attitudes, practices, and health in Pakistan during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The ongoing outbreak of novel Coronavirus originated from Wuhan, China, and vigorously spread throughout the globe causing serious concerns. This study aimed to appraise the community demographics, knowledge, attitudes, practices mental health, symptoms, and precautionary measures during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Pakistan. This study was a cross‐sectional and observational study. An online semi‐structured questionnaire was designed by freely available Google Forms. A Referral Sampling technique was used, a total of 439 responses were recorded and analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Regression analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis were done to test the hypothesis. This study shows more than 63% of participants maintain social distancing at their workplaces, offices, markets, and so forth and 59% of participants stayed at their homes during the lockdown. Almost 75% of participants did not attend any gathering during COVID‐19. Most participants (75.4%) wear masks and gloves, and 85.6% of participants wash their hands with soap and using hand sanitizer regularly. This study shows that 40.8% and 36.2% of participants felt anxiety and fear due to Coronavirus. This study shows that knowledge among the population in Pakistan about COVID‐19 was low. Continued efforts are needed to address knowledge, attitudes, and practices to interrupt novel Coronavirus transmission.

Impacts of COVID-19 on individuals’ mobility behavior in Pakistan based on self-reported responses

“…This will also help enhance the safety perceptions and reduce the threats of being affected by COVID-19. The majority of Pakistanis students are aware of COVID-19 spread and severity ( Hussain et al, 2021 ), but the general population feels anxiety and fear due to COVID-19 spread, as mentioned in a recent study ( Nadeem and Khaliq, 2021 ). Besides enforcing preventive measures to COVID-19 spread, the post-pandemic world needs educational interventions and awareness campaigns to encourage the public to use public/shared transportation.…”

“…Recently, many relevant studies have been conducted in China ( Cui et al, 2021 ; Dong et al, 2021 ; Zhang and Lee, 2021 ), Australia ( Hensher et al, 2021 ), Sweden ( Kazemzadeh and Koglin, 2021 ), the United Kingdom ( Vickerman, 2021 ), and Germany ( Anke et al, 2021 ) to uncover the impacts of the COVID-19 on various modes of transportation and travel activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic period in South Asian countries, a few studies have been conducted in Pakistan to explore the factors contributing to putting pressure on the available health facilities ( Habib and Abbas, 2021 ; Rehman et al, 2020 ; Waris et al, 2020 ) and community knowledge, attitudes, and practices, and awareness regarding the COVID-19 ( Hussain et al, 2021 ; Nadeem and Khaliq, 2021 ). However, the COVID-19 impacts on individuals' mobility behavior and usage of public transportation remain unknown.…”

“…The first confirmed case of the COVID-19 was reported on February 26, 2020, in Pakistan, triggering a sudden spread of this disease across the country ( Waris et al, 2020 ). The government of Pakistan declared a nationwide locked down on March 22, 2020, leaded the public to stay home, disturbed mobility patterns across the country, and encouraged work from home ( Habib and Abbas, 2021 ; Nadeem and Khaliq, 2021 ). In May 2020, the Government of Pakistan started to ease the locked down restrictions, which results in a sudden increase in the COVID-19 cases ( Rehman et al, 2020 ).…”

“…1 , illustrating the most serious period starting from the end of May 2020 to the mid of July 2020. From September 2020, the new confirmed cases were considerably under control ( Nadeem and Khaliq, 2021 ). However, Pakistani authorities have been imposed a partial locked down throughout the year 2020 to prevent the mass gatherings in public places.…”

The Impact of Job Stress and State Anger on Turnover Intention Among Nurses During COVID-19: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, as overworked hospitals are faced with the flow of confirmed and suspected cases, the shortage of health care workers ( Yang et al, 2021 ). The influence of COVID-19 on psychological health and work-related outcome has been remained a concern and an issue of interest for researchers recently ( Islam et al, 2021 ; Khan, 2021a ; Nadeem and Khaliq, 2021 ). Since the beginning of the pandemic the medical personnel have played a critical role in crises and particularly in situation of emergencies around the world ( Khan, 2021b ).…”