Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Towards COVID-19: An Epidemiological Survey in North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health challenge globally with countries of the world adopting unprecedented infection prevention and control (IPC) measures to urgently curtail the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of the people toward COVID-19 is critical to understanding the epidemiological dynamics of the disease and the effectiveness, compliance and success of IPC measures adopted in a country. This study sought to determine the levels of KAP toward COVID-19 among residents of north-central Nigeria. A cross-sectional online survey with a semi-structured questionnaire using a Snowball sampling technique was conducted during the national lockdown. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's correlation and regression tests. From a total of 589 responses received, 80.6, 59.6, 90.4 and 56.2% were from respondents between ages 18-39 years, males, had a college (Bachelor) degree or above and reside in urban areas respectively. Respondents had good knowledge (99.5%) of COVID-19, gained mainly through the internet/social media (55.7%) and Television (27.5%). The majority of the respondents (79.5%) had positive attitudes toward the adherence of government IPC measures with 92.7, 96.4 and 82.3% practicing social distancing/self-isolation, improved personal hygiene and using face mask respectively. However, 52.1% of the respondents perceived that the government is not doing enough to curtail COVID-19 in Nigeria. Pearson's correlation showed significant relationship between knowledge of COVID-19 and attitude towards preventive measures (r = 0.177, p = 0.004, r = 0.137, p = 0.001). Although 61.8% of the respondents have no confidence in the present intervention by Chinese doctors, only 29.0% would accept COVID-19 vaccines when available. This study recorded good knowledge and attitudes among participants, however, community-based health campaigns are necessary to hold optimistic attitudes and practice appropriate intervention measures devoid of misconceptions.

Knowledge, attitudes, anxiety, and preventive behaviours towards COVID-19 among health care providers in Yemen: an online cross-sectional survey

“…Such a correlation could be explained by the Theory of Reasoned Action [31], which stated that a person's intention to carry out a speci c behaviour is determined by their attitude toward this behaviour. Our ndings are in line with other studies result [20,30,32] showing that having a good level of knowledge about COVID-19 correlated with optimistic attitudes and proper practices towards COVID-19. In contrast, our results are in disagreement with the result of Nemati et al [29] who found that most Iranian nurses exhibited their anxiety about themselves and their families as a result of COVID-19 though their knowledge that they had about COVID-19 seemed su cient.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practice of the Sudanese people towards COVID-19: An online survey

“…The study was performed among the Sudanese population using smartphones and social media that explain why the majority of the population were young, living in Khartoum state and were university or highly educated. This was also the case in previous t quick online surveys on COVID-19 (6,14,(16)(17)(18) The high awareness in this study can be explained by the explosive ow of information on all platforms especially after the appearance of the rst case of the disease in the country similar to what happened in China (6). The sources of knowledge were mainly o cial websites (internet) and social media.…”

“…The Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health has a well-established with thousands of owers, continuously updated social media page and an o cial website. The wide access to the social media carries the risk of infodemics which the authorities should mitigate by proper risk communication (17,18). Similar to what happened in Egypt, hydroxychloroquine ran out of the stocks in Sudan after rumors of its promising effect on COVID-19 (17) The knowledge of the population was high and this may be attributed to the characteristics of the study population, it is also a feature found in other countries in the region (17)(18)(19)(20).…”

Knowledge, attitudes, anxiety, and preventive behaviors towards COVID-19 among health care providers in Yemen: an online cross-sectional survey

“…Such correlation could be explained by the Theory of Reasoned Action [31], which stated that a person's intention to carry out a speci c behavior is determined by their attitude toward this behavior. Our ndings are in line with other studies result [20,30,32] showing that having a good level of knowledge about COVID-19 correlated with optimistic attitudes and proper practices towards COVID-19. In contrast, our results are in disagreement with the result of Nemati et al [29] who found that most Iranian nurses exhibited their anxiety about themselves and their families as a result of COVID-19 though their knowledge that they had about COVID-19 seemed su cient.…”