Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to COVID-19 pandemic among adult population in Sidama Regional State, Southern Ethiopia: A community based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction COVID-19 incidence is increasing and different measures have been adopted to control the spread of the pandemic in Ethiopia. Among these measures, enhancing the knowledge, positive attitudes, and proper practices of prevention measures about the disease is a basic strategy to control it. However, community compliance to control measures is largely dependent on their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19. Objective To assess the current level of KAP towards COVID-19 pandemic and predictors among the rural dwellers in Sidama regional state, Southern Ethiopia; 2020. Methods This community-based prospective cross-sectional study was carried out from May 1–30, 2020 on a sample of 1,278 adult populations in Sidama regional state, Southern Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to choice the study participants. The data were collected using a structured interviewer-administered questionnaire. We have entered data using Epi data version 3.1 and all analyses were done using SPSS version 25. KAPs scores of study participants based on their independent variables were compared using Chi-square test, t-test or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as required. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with KAP. The important assumptions of the logistic regression model were checked to be satisfied. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to assess the existence and strength of associations. Results From a total of 1,214 study participants, the overall attained knowledge, attitude and practice score about COVID-19 were 90%, 82.4% and 65%, respectively. Among these, 43.9%, 37.5%, and 24.4% of the study participants had demonstrated good knowledge, high attitude and proper practice, respectively. The mean knowledge scores were significantly different between sex, categories of marital status, educational levels, main occupation, and the monthly income quintiles of the study participants (p<0.05). Similarly, the mean attitude scores significantly varied across educational levels, main occupations and marital status (p<0.05). Based on multivariable logistic regression analysis, main occupation of the government employees, education level of diploma and above, highest and second highest wealth rank were positively associated with COVID-19 prevention and control practice. Conclusions The majority of study participants had showed good knowledge and optimistic attitude toward COVID-19. But, the level of practice lower than that expected to maximize effective control measures. Further public education interventions and community sensitization campaigns are required for rural adult population in the Sidama regional state, Ethiopia.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 among antenatal care clients of Adama hospital medical college, Adama, Ethiopia: A cross sectional study

“…The level of good knowledge in this study is comparable to a study done in Amhara region where 279 (70%) had demonstrated good knowledge and relatively higher when compared to studies conducted among residents of Dessie and Kombolcha city administrations where 54.11% had inadequate knowledge ( 16), Tigray region where 42.9% of respondents were knowledgeable (17), Sidama region where 43.9% of the study participants had good knowledge (18) and Addis Abeba where only 37.2% had good knowledge (19). The level of poor knowledge is much lower than a study conducted in Addis Zemen Hospital where the prevalence of poor knowledge was 33.9% (20).…”

COVID-19 prevention practices in urban setting during early introduction of the disease: results from community survey in SNNP Region, Ethiopia

“…The level of education was also reported as a significant factor in the study conducted in Sidama and Tigrai regions of Ethiopia. 11 12 Moreover, studies done in South West Ethiopia, 13 Tigrai 12 and Palestine 14 added that level of knowledge is a significant factor of COVID-19 prevention. This indicated that level of awareness is important to prevent the disease.…”

Public Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward COVID-19 Prevention: a Literature Review

“…The reason might be since the current study was conducted after most of the population obtained information about the disease in several ways (Gebretsadik et al, 2021). Gebretsadik et al (2021) and Yoseph et al (2021) also stated that it might be due to the study participants getting access to the internet service, which helped them find information about the disease from several sources. Other studies showed that the excellent knowledge of COVID-19 might be due to the study respondents live in urban residence with higher education degree (Gao et al, 2020;Mohamed et al, 2021).…”

“…Many researchers reported that public attitude toward COVID-19 was optimistic (Azlan et al, 2020;Gao et al, 2020;Kartheek et al, 2020;Okello et al, 2020;Yoseph et al, 2021). This is possible because the belief can pass this situation and win against the disease by supporting lockdown decision and following restrictive policies (Kartheek et al, 2020).…”

“…However, due to inadequate knowledge, the people did not follow the regulation of washing their hands more than 20 seconds (Kartheek et al, 2020). The result might be because the respondents have insufficient knowledge that would relate to the practice (Lau et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2021;Yoseph et al, 2021). Another study showed that the low hand hygiene practice was due to a lack of handwashing facilities (Kartheek et al, 2020).…”