Do knowledge and attitudes matter for preventive behavioral practices toward the COVID-19? A cross-sectional online survey among the adult population in Bangladesh

Perceptions and factors associated with COVID Appropriate Behavior (CAB) obedience among general public in India: A mixed methods research

BACKGROUND

The purpose of the study was to analyze the public perception toward COVID Appropriate Behavior (CAB) obedience and to identify the factors associated with declining CAB.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

It is a mixed methods study conducted from November 2021 to September 2022 in Pune city, India. A set of 15-CAB guidelines published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (GoI), were used as a base document to design the instruments of qualitative and quantitative study. Using a one-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, CAB scores were tested for normality and distribution. Comparisons of various parameters were done using z test for proportion and paired t-test (statistical significance level was 0.05). Thematic content analysis was conducted for qualitative data analysis and verbatims are reported where applicable.

RESULTS

The main motivation for people to get vaccinated was family and personal safety and a higher proportion of people felt safer post-vaccination which was linked to a reduced likelihood of CAB obedience. Qualitative results showed that people's lack of empathy and concern for others leads to undesirable personal behaviors such as spitting in public places, not wearing masks, etc., The need for socialization is high but discomfort with the use of masks/face shields and habituation with the disease were prominent causes of CAB disobedience.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that reduced fear and gradual habituation have led to reduced CAB obedience. There is a need to reinforce empathy and concern for others to improve adherence to CAB like maintaining social distancing and wearing masks in public places for personal and social safety from the disease.

Short report: COVID-19 related knowledge, anxiety, and attitude towards the back-to-school arrangement among college students in China: a cross-sectional study

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been assumed to affect mental health of college students. The present cross-sectional study was conducted to examine levels of knowledge and anxiety about COVID-19, as well as attitude towards the back-to-school arrangement among college students in China in May 2020. A total of 716 students (312 males, 404 females) were included. Only 38.1% of the participants showed good knowledge about COVID-19. Moderate and severe anxiety was observed among 7.6% of the students. There were 15.6% of the participants opposing the back-to-school arrangement. Female students had more risk of having anxiety symptoms and negative attitude towards the back-to-school arrangement (p < 0.05). In addition, the level of anxiety was positively associated with the negative attitude towards the back-to-school arrangement (r = 0.11, p < 0.05). We therefore suggest that health education and psychological interventions should be given to college students, especially females and those without health-related backgrounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Knowledge, attitude, practice, and fear level of Bangladeshi students toward Covid-19 after a year of the pandemic situation: A web-based cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION

In the earlier phase of the pandemic situation, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) badly suffered to adhere their people to preventive measures probably due to less knowledge and attitude toward Covid-19. To tackle the second wave of coronavirus, the GoB has again enforced an array of preventive measures, but still encountering the same problem after a year of the pandemic situation. As an attempt to find out the reasons behind this, our study aimed to assess the present knowledge and fear level regarding Covid-19, and attitude and practice of students toward Covid-19 preventive measures (CPM).

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was designed and conducted from 15th to 25th April 2021. A total of 382 participants met all the inclusion criteria and were considered for performing all the statistical analyses (Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Multiple logistic regression, Spearman rank-order correlation).

RESULTS

All the participants were students aged 16 to 30 years. 84.8%, and 22.3% of participants had respectively more accurate knowledge, and moderate to high fear level regarding Covid-19. And, 66%, and 55% of participants had more positive attitude, and more frequent practice toward CPM, respectively. Knowledge, attitude, practice, and fear were interrelated directly or indirectly. It was found knowledgeable participants were more likely to have more positive attitude (AOR = 2.34, 95% CI = 1.23-4.47, P < 0.01) and very little fear (AOR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.10-4.26, P < 0.05). More positive attitude was found as a good predictor of more frequent practice (AOR = 4.00, 95% CI = 2.44-6.56, P < 0.001), and very less fear had negative impact on both attitude (AOR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.23-0.84, P < 0.01) and practice (AOR = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.26-0.84, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings reflect that students had appreciable knowledge and very little fear, but disappointedly had average attitude and practice toward Covid-19 prevention. In addition, students lacked confidence that Bangladesh would win the battle against Covid-19. Thus, based on our study findings we recommend that policymakers should be more focused to scale up students' confidence and attitude toward CPM by developing and implementing well-conceived plan of actions besides insisting them to practice CPM.

Education-related inequalities in beliefs and behaviors pertaining to COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions

BACKGROUND

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed existing social inequalities in relation to disease preventive behaviors, risk of exposure, testing and healthcare access, and consequences as a result of illness and containment measures across different population groups. However, due to a lack of data, to date there has been limited evidence of the extent of such within-country inequalities globally.

METHODS

We examined education-related inequalities in four COVID-19 prevention and testing indicators within 90 countries, using data from the University of Maryland Social Data Science Center Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey, in partnership with Facebook, over the period 1 June 2021 to 31 December 2021. The overall level of education-related inequalities, as well as how they differ across country income groups and how they have changed over time were analyzed using the Slope Index of Inequality (SII) and the Relative Index of Inequality (RII). We also assessed whether these education-related inequalities were associated with government policies and responses.

RESULTS

Education-related inequalities in beliefs, mask wearing, social distancing and testing varied across the study countries. Mask wearing and beliefs in the effectiveness of social distancing and mask wearing were overall more common among people with a higher level of education. Even after controlling for other sociodemographic and health-related factors, social distancing practice was higher among the most educated in low/lower middle income countries, but was higher overall among the least educated in high income countries. Overall there were low education-related inequalities in COVID-19 testing, though there was variation across countries.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights important within-country education-related differences in COVID-19 beliefs, preventive behaviors and testing, as well as differing trends across country income groups. This has implications for considering and targeting specific population groups when designing public health interventions and messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic and future health emergencies.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among undergraduates during emergency remote learning

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic paralyzes the education sector. To minimize the interruption of teaching and learning, most universities in Malaysia shifted to virtual mode during this unprecedented period of the pandemic. With an ever-increasing number of Malaysians fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the education system is expected to switch back to face-to-face mode this year. It is crucial to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of COVID-19 among emergency remote learning undergraduates before reverting to physical teaching and learning. Hence, a study was conducted with this aim in mind.

Methods

A total of 299 Malaysian undergraduates were recruited through a snowball sampling approach. The online questionnaire encompassed three main segments: informed consent, sociodemographic information, and KAP questions on COVID-19.

Results

The mean scores for knowledge, attitude, and practice were 4.05/6, 11.14/12, and 5.07/7, respectively. The results of the present study showed that year 1 respondents had significantly higher levels (p < 0.05) of KAP scores than year 4 respondents. In addition, the attitude score of science majors respondents was significantly greater (p < 0.05) than those of nonscience majors. The KAP scores showed no significant difference among groups with different sexes, ethnicities, and COVID-19 histories. Partial correlation analysis revealed that the overall knowledge score was positively correlated with attitude (r = 0.193, p = 0.001) and practice (r = 0.343, p < 0.001) scores whereas the total attitude score was positively correlated with the total practice score (r = 0.149, p = 0.010).

Conclusion

Our current results suggest that COVID-19 workshops, seminars, or training programs for year 4 students could be conducted to enhance their KAP levels.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward the Prevention of COVID-19 in Bangladesh: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background

Numerous studies on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) about the prevention of COVID-19 infections are available in Bangladeshi contexts, with results that vary significantly. However, no earlier attempt has been made to analyze the available COVID-19 KAP studies in Bangladesh, which is incorporated in this meta-analysis for the first time.

Methods

Following the PRISMA guidelines, articles relevant to COVID-19 KAP that were conducted among the Bangladeshi population were found in databases such as PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate. Random-effect meta-analysis was used to generate a pooled prevalence of knowledge, attitude, and practice level toward the prevention of COVID-19 infection.

Results

This review included 18 articles that were published between March 2020 and November 2021. Overall, 89.87% (95% CI: 67.71-97.40) understood about COVID-19 symptoms, 92.09% (95% CI: 84.32-96.18) knew about how it spreads, and 79.51% (95% CI: 59.38-91.15) knew about how to treat it. The public's perception of controlling COVID-19 is mixed, with only 44.16% (95% CI: 35.74-52.93) and 60.28% (95% CI: 49.22-70.38) believing the country would win the struggle against the pandemic and the infection will be successfully controlled, respectively. Although overall COVID-19 preventative practice was good, subgroup analysis found that men had a poor practice toward controlling the infection. The practice of avoiding crowded places (70.15%) and maintaining social distance (77.17%) was found to be satisfactory in institution-based studies.

Conclusion

The findings of this study revealed that the Bangladeshi population had a good awareness of COVID-19 symptoms, treatment, attitudes, and behaviors. The findings of this study are likely to aid Bangladeshi governments and policymakers in putting evidence into action by identifying gaps and emphasizing the importance of educating the less informed public about COVID-19 transmission.

Food safety knowledge, attitudes, and eating behavior in the advent of the global coronavirus pandemic

The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationships of food safety knowledge, attitude and eating behavior of consumers during national lockdowns in the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 157 respondents completed the online survey using a structured questionnaire worldwide. Overall, the respondents exhibited good attitude and good knowledge towards public health including food safety especially on the importance of social distancing, mask wearing, well-balanced diet, physical exercise and personal hygiene, such as hand washing during the pandemic lockdowns. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the relationships among food safety knowledge, attitude and behavior under the pandemic conditions. Results showed that attitude towards food safety under the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns positively affected the eating behavior of the respondents, which exhibited a high β (0.686) among the variables tested (p<0.05). Food safety knowledge was apparently not affected by the food safety behavior of the respondents.

Utilization of complementary and alternative medicine for the prevention of COVID-19 infection in Ghana: A national cross-sectional online survey

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82.5% of all participants reported CAM use during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

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69.1% of CAM users intended it for COVID-19 infection prevention.

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Commonly used CAM include vitamins, spiritual healing/prayer, minerals and herbals.

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Age, sex and COVID-19 illness perception significantly predicted CAM use.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is widespread and has played critical roles in preventing infections, including previous coronaviruses. This study sought to document current practices in the use of CAM for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in Ghana. An anonymous electronic survey was conducted from February 1, 2021 to April 30, 2021. Data on demographic characteristics, basic clinical information, illness perceptions about COVID-19, and CAM use during the pandemic period were generated. While about 82.5% (986/1195) of the participants used CAM during the COVID-19 period, 69.1% (681/986) of CAM users intented it for COVID-19 infection prevention. Vitamin supplements (88.1%, 869/986), spiritual healing/prayer (23.3%, 230/986), mineral supplements (22.3%, 220/986), botanical/herbal medicines (22.2%, 219/986), and diet therapy (19.4%, 191/986) were the main types of CAM used. From the adjusted binary logistic regression model, current age (aOR: 1.03, 95%CI: 1.01–1.05), sex (aOR: 1.41, 95%CI: 1.02–1.95), participants’ perceptions of consequences (aOR: 1.10, 95%CI: 1.04–1.17), identity (aOR: 1.15, 95%CI: 1.06–1.25) and concerns about COVID-19 (aOR: 0.91, 95%CI: 0.85–0.97) were statistically significant predictors of CAM use. These results suggest the need for appropriate public health policy on COVID-19 and CAM use in addition to directing further research initiatives toward an optimized COVID-19 prevention scheme using clinically validated CAM treatments. Research to validate the clinical efficacy of these products, especially the herbs, for COVID-19 prevention while isolating lead compounds that could be optimized and used for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 is also recommended.

Is Population Density a Risk Factor for Communicable Diseases Like COVID-19? A Case of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world struggling to prevent COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). This study employed correlation, cluster analysis, and multiple linear regression analyses using district-wise COVID-19 infection and socioeconomic data. It is observed that there is a strong positive correlation (r = 0.876, P < .001) between population density and COVID-19, explaining a 60% variation in Bangladesh. The relationship between urbanization and COVID-19 is also positively strong (r = 0.802, P < .001). Urban settlements have a higher risk of spreading diseases due to the enormous population density. For future planning to prevent COVID-19 and other related infectious diseases, population density should be considered a risk factor.

Do knowledge and attitudes matter for preventive behavioral practices toward the COVID-19? A cross-sectional online survey among the adult population in Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh has adopted several non-therapeutic measures to tackle the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. However, the curve of COVID-19 positive cases has not significantly flattened yet, as the adoption of preventive measures by the general population is predominantly a behavioral phenomenon that is often influenced by people's knowledge and attitudes. This study aimed to assess the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 and their interrelationships among the population of Bangladesh aged 18 years and above. This study adopted a web-based cross-sectional survey design and collected data from 1056 respondents using the online platform Google Form. We employed the independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's product-moment correlation, and Spearman rank-order correlation to produce the bivariate level statistics. We also run multiple linear and logistic regression models to identify the factors affecting knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19. The respondents had an average knowledge score of 17.29 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 3.30). The average score for attitude scale toward COVID-19 was 13.6 (SD = 3.7). The respondents had excellent preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 (mean 7.7, SD = 0.72). However, this study found that knowledge and attitudes did not matter for preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19. Instead, education appeared as a sole predictor for preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19; that means preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 was lower among the less educated respondents. This study suggests increasing education as a long-term strategy and taking immediate action to increase knowledge and decrease negative attitudes toward COVID-19 through targeted health education initiatives as a short-term strategy.