Public knowledge, beliefs, psychological responses, and behavioural changes during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Middle East

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the knowledge, believes, psychological and behavioural impact of COVID-19 on the general population in the Middle East, exploring how it impacted public lives.
 Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional online survey was sent to a convenience sample in the Middle East through social media (Facebook and WhatsApp) between 16th of June and 30th of June 2020. The questionnaire was designed to collect the demographic, participant’s source of information regarding COVID-19, knowledge and believes about COVID-19, the psychological consequences of COVID-19, impact of COVID-19 on participant’s behaviour. The final version of the questionnaire was further tested for content validity by experts in the field.
 Results: A total of 2,061 participants completed the survey, with the majority being females (n=1394, 67.6%), from urban areas (n=1896, 92%) and the majority were from countries of The Levant (n=1199, 58.1%), followed by the Arabian Peninsula (n=392, 19.1%), Iraq (n=300, 14.6%) and Egypt (n=138, 6.7%). Few participants (3.0%) reported to have been infected and many (n=1847, 89.6%) were committed to quarantine at home. Social media platforms were the most common sources of information (41.2%). Many (63%) believed that COVID-19 is a biological weapon and were afraid of visiting crowded places (85%). The majority avoided public facilities (86.9%) such as prayer places and believed that the news about COVID-19 made them anxious (49.5%).

Assessment of Knowledge, Perception, Experience and Phobia toward Corticosteroids Use among the General Public in the Era of COVID-19: A Multinational Study

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms have been crucial in transmitting health information between people [57]. A previous study from the Middle East during the pandemic reported similar findings on social media platforms being the most common source of information among people [58]. Also, during the pandemic, the use of corticosteroids (Dexamethasone) as a preventive medication increased due to the media blitz among patients [59,60].…”

Consumers’ knowledge, attitude and practice of respiratory symptoms self-medication in community pharmacy during COVID-19 pandemic

“…This unprecedented public health crisis acted as a major stimulus for increasing preventive medicine. The importance of the pharmacist's role is also stated in the guidelines issued by the FIP including educating the public on infection control and preventive measures to reduce transmission of COVID-19 [9,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Evaluation of knowledge, experiences, and fear toward prescribing and dispensing corticosteroids among Egyptian healthcare professionals: A cross-sectional study

“…The 5-point Likert-type scale results were examined for the respondents; the mean ± SD of the fear score was calculated for each item and sample category (pharmacists and physicians). The score results have been classified into three rankings ( Abazid et al, 2021 ), with low scores falling between 1.00 and 1.66, moderate scores falling between 1.67 and 3.32, and high scores falling between 3.33 and 5.00.…”