Investigating knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to COVID-19 outbreak among Bangladeshi young adults: A web-based cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p><jats:bold>Aim:</jats:bold> This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 among young adults in Bangladesh. <jats:bold>Subject and Methods:</jats:bold> A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 5<jats:sup>th</jats:sup> May to 25<jats:sup>th</jats:sup> May 2020. Young adults aged between 18-35 years were approached via social media to complete an online questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic characteristics and KAP towards COVID-19. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple logistic regressions were conducted. <jats:bold>Results:</jats:bold> Of the 707 survey participants, the majority were male (57.1%), with a mean age of 25.03 (SD: 4.26) years, 60.3% were students, 57% had a bachelor's degree, and 64.4% urban residents. Participants gather information on COVID-19 mostly through Social media (70.4%). Overall, 61.2% had adequate knowledge with 78.9% having a positive attitude towards COVID-19 and only 51.6% had good practices. Most (86.8%) of the participants were confident that COVID-19 will be successfully controlled and Bangladesh was handling the COVID-19 health crisis well (84.20%). Only 75.2% of participants always washed hands with soap or hand-sanitizer and 70.6% wore a mask when going outside the home in recent days. Factors associated with adequate knowledge were being female, having a master's degree and above, and living in an urban area (𝑝 &lt; 0.05). Participants having adequate knowledge of COVID-19 had higher likelihood of positive attitudes (OR: 6.41, 95% CI = 2.34-25.56, 𝑝 = 0.000) and good practices (OR: 8.93, 95% CI = 3.92-38.42, 𝑝 = 0.000). <jats:bold>Conclusion:</jats:bold> Introducing effective COVID-19 Health campaigns incorporating factors to influence KAP is urgently needed.</jats:p>

Assessing Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards COVID-19 among Sub Assistant Agriculture Officers: An Empirical Study in Bangladesh

“…Although most of the SAAOs had good knowledge of about COVID-19, there is still need to increase knowledge of about 33.64 percent of them ( Table 3). However, our good knowledge score is higher than the previously recorded good knowledge among Bangladeshi people [20,22], but lower than the Chinese people [2]. Our findings differ with a study [24], reporting inaccurate knowledge of the people of Bangladesh about COVID-19.…”

“…The possible explanation could be that the respondents were relying heavily on social media during the lockdowns, and this can be justified by a study [28], reporting that the use of internet has been increased by 15-20 percent during the lockdowns in Bangladesh. Some other studies [19][20] reported similar to our finding. Next to the social media, television and friends and family were important information sources of COVID-19 ( Figure 2).…”

“…This implies that dissemination of concrete information regarding transmission of the virus is inevitable. The findings are consistent with some other studies in Bangladesh [20,25] and Malaysia [1].…”

“…A research in Malaysia [1] found that the respondents of above 50 years of age had higher knowledge about COVID-19. The study in China [2] supports our findings, but other studies [20,24] differ that the younger people had significantly adequate knowledge about COVID-19 in Bangladesh. We also found that the male respondents had higher knowledge about COVID-19.…”

“…From this background, the present study was designed to assess the KAP of the SAAOs regarding COVID-19. A good volume of studies were found assessing KAP regarding COVID-19 among general public in Bangladesh [20][21][22][23][24][25]. To the best of our knowledge, no such study was conducted yet to address SAAO's KAP towards COVID-19.…”