How Much Do Young Italians Know About COVID-19 and What Are Their Attitudes Toward SARS-CoV-2? Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior toward COVID-19 Vaccination in Young Italians

Purpose: The knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of young Italians towards the COVID-19 vaccination were analyzed in order to provide information useful to elaborate the strategies that can be implemented to obtain the best possible vaccination coverage in this population. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 5313 young people aged between 11 and 30 years. Data were collected through an online survey during the period from 1 to 10 March 2021. The answers to the questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. Intention to vaccinate was studied by univariate analysis using Pearson’s chi-square test to assess differences between groups for categorical variables, and by multivariate analysis applying the binary logistic regression model, and the Hosmer−Lemeshow test was performed to assess goodness of fit. Results: Television (32.1%), internet/search engine (25.9%), and social networks (10.4%) were the main sources of information for young Italians. The survey analysis showed that 74.5% (3956) of the respondents were willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 versus 25.5% (1357) who were against it. Demographic data, in particular, age, gender, experience with influenza vaccine, and level of knowledge about the disease, were significant determinants (p < 0.001) for the choice to vaccinate against COVID-19. Discussion: These results suggest that in order to implement the vaccination campaign, correct information is needed to improve awareness of the vaccine and COVID-19, while also taking into account the target group, which differs not only in age but also in the sources of information used compared to the adult population.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of Iranian people about food safety and hygiene during covid-19 pandemic

AIM

The objective of this study was to develop a cultural adopted questionnaire for evaluation of knowledge (K), attitude (A) and practice (P) of Iranian population toward food safety during Covid-19.

METHODS

The study is based on an online questionnaire that filled by 712 Iranians over 16 years old. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability assessment were performed. The construct validity of A and P determined by EFA and confirmed by CFA. Difficulty index was used for K.

RESULTS

The reliability score of questionnaire was satisfactory. The three items of K-A-P questionnaire were significantly associated with the total score of questionnaire. The KAP questionnaire regarding food safety in covid-19 consisted of 27 items multidimensional scale with strong psychometric features. The respondent showed a satisfactory level of KAP during covid-19 pandemics.

CONCLUSION

The KAP questionnaire regarding food safety in covid-19 is a valid and reliable tool for measurement of knowledge, attitude and practice of people regarding food safety in covid-19.

A systematic review: the dimensions to evaluate health care performance and an implication during the pandemic

BACKGROUND

The balanced scorecard (BSC) has been implemented to evaluate the performance of health care organizations (HCOs). BSC proved to be effective in improving financial performance and patient satisfaction.

AIM

This systematic review aims to identify all the perspectives, dimensions, and KPIs that are vital and most frequently used by health care managers in BSC implementations.

METHODS

This systematic review adheres to PRISMA guidelines. The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases and Google search engine were inspected to find all implementations of BSC at HCO. The risk of bias was assessed using the nonrandomized intervention studies (ROBINS-I) tool to evaluate the quality of observational and quasi-experimental studies and the Cochrane (RoB 2) tool for randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

RESULTS

There were 33 eligible studies, of which we identified 36 BSC implementations. The categorization and regrouping of the 797 KPIs resulted in 45 subdimensions. The reassembly of these subdimensions resulted in 13 major dimensions: financial, efficiency and effectiveness, availability and quality of supplies and services, managerial tasks, health care workers' (HCWs) scientific development error-free and safety, time, HCW-centeredness, patient-centeredness, technology, and information systems, community care and reputation, HCO building, and communication. On the other hand, this review detected that BSC design modification to include external and managerial perspectives was necessary for many BSC implementations.

CONCLUSION

This review solves the KPI categorization dilemma. It also guides researchers and health care managers in choosing dimensions for future BSC implementations and performance evaluations in general. Consequently, dimension uniformity will improve the data sharing and comparability among studies. Additionally, despite the pandemic negatively influencing many dimensions, the researchers observed a lack of comprehensive HCO performance evaluations. In the same vein, although some resulting dimensions were assessed separately during the pandemic, other dimensions still lack investigation. Last, BSC dimensions may play an essential role in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. However, further research is required to investigate the BSC implementation effect in mitigating the pandemic consequences on HCO.

Global epidemiology of COVID-19 knowledge, attitude and practice: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of the global general population regarding COVID-19.

DESIGN

Systematic review and meta-analysis.

METHODS

MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and PsycINFO were used to identify articles published between 1 January and 30 June 2021 assessing KAP regarding COVID-19 in the global general population. The quality of eligible studies was assessed. Random effects model was used to obtain the pooled proportion of each component of KAP of COVID-19. Heterogeneity (I2) was tested, and subgroup and correlation analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Out of 3099 records, 84 studies from 45 countries across all continents assessing 215 731 participants' COVID-19 KAP were included in this study. The estimated overall correct answers for knowledge, good attitude and good practice in this review were 75% (95% CI 72% to 77%), 74% (95% CI 71% to 77%) and 70% (95% CI 66% to 74%), respectively. Low-income countries, men, people aged below 30 years and people with 12 years of education or less had the lowest practice scores. Practice scores were below 60% in Africa and Europe/Oceania. Overall heterogeneity was high (I2 ≥98%), and publication bias was present (Egger's regression test, p<0.01). A positive significant correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.314, p=0.006), and attitude and practice (r=0.348, p=0.004) was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

This study's findings call for community-based awareness programmes to provide a simple, clear and understandable message to reinforce knowledge especially regarding efficacy of the preventive measures in low and lower middle-income countries, and in Africa and Europe/Oceania, which will translate into good practice. Targeted intervention for men, people with low education, unemployed people and people aged below 30 years should be recommended. As most of the included studies were online surveys, underprivileged and remote rural people may have been missed out. Additional studies are needed to cover heterogeneous populations.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42020203476.

Critical Health Literacy in a Pandemic: A Cluster Analysis Among German University Students

Objectives: In the COVID-19 pandemic, critical health literacy (CHL-P) has been proposed as a means of addressing issues of complexity, uncertainty, and urgency. Our study aimed to identify CHL-P clusters among university students in Germany and to analyze associations with potential determinants.

Methods: In May 2020, students at four German universities participated in the COVID-19 International Student Well-Being Study, an online survey that yielded a non-probabilistic sample of N = 5,021. CHL-P, COVID-19-related knowledge, worries, risk perception, and adherence to protective measures were measured in an online questionnaire with self-constructed items. We conducted a cluster analysis of the five CHL-P items and performed logistic regression analyses.

Results: Two CHL-P clusters were identified: high vs. moderate CHL-P. Belonging to the high-CHL-P cluster (31.2% of students) was significantly associated with older age, female/other gender, advanced education, higher levels of parental education, and moderate importance placed on education. In addition, higher levels of knowledge, risk perception and worries, and adherence to protective measures were associated with high CHL-P cluster membership.

Conclusion: Students would benefit from educational measures that promote CHL-P at German universities.

Awareness, knowledge and trust in the Greek authorities towards COVID-19 pandemic: results from the Epirus Health Study cohort

BACKGROUND

To assess the level of knowledge and trust in the policy decisions taken regarding the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic among Epirus Health Study (EHS) participants.

METHODS

The EHS is an ongoing and deeply-phenotyped prospective cohort study that has recruited 667 participants in northwest Greece until August 31st, 2020. Level of knowledge on coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) transmission and COVID-19 severity was labeled as poor, moderate or good. Variables assessing knowledge and beliefs towards the pandemic were summarized overall and by sex, age group (25-39, 40-49, 50-59, ≥60 years) and period of report (before the lifting of lockdown measures in Greece: March 30th to May 3rd, and two post-lockdown time periods: May 4th to June 31st, July 1st to August 31st). A hypothesis generating exposure-wide association analysis was conducted to evaluate the associations between 153 agnostically-selected explanatory variables and participants' knowledge. Correction for multiple comparisons was applied using a false discovery rate (FDR) threshold of 5%.

RESULTS

A total of 563 participants (49 years mean age; 60% women) had available information on the standard EHS questionnaire, the clinical and biochemical measurements, and the COVID-19-related questionnaire. Percentages of poor, moderate and good knowledge status regarding COVID-19 were 4.5, 10.0 and 85.6%, respectively. The majority of participants showed absolute or moderate trust in the Greek health authorities for the management of the epidemic (90.1%), as well as in the Greek Government (84.7%) and the official national sources of information (87.4%). Trust in the authorities was weaker in younger participants and those who joined the study after the lifting of lockdown measures (p-value≤0.001). None of the factors examined was associated with participants' level of knowledge after correction for multiple testing.

CONCLUSIONS

High level of knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic and trust in the Greek authorities was observed, possibly due to the plethora of good quality publicly available information and the timely management of the pandemic at its early stages in Greece. Information campaigns for the COVID-19 pandemic should be encouraged even after the lifting of lockdown measures to increase public awareness.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport in Twitter: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis

The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has transformed many aspects of people’s daily life, including sports. Social networks have been flooded on these issues. The present study aims to analyze the tweets produced relating to sports and COVID-19. From the end of January to the beginning of May 2020, over 4,000,000 tweets on this subject were downloaded through the Twitter search API. Once the duplicates, replicas, and retweets were removed, 119,253 original tweets were analyzed. A quantitative–qualitative content analysis was used to study the selected tweets. Posts dynamics regarding sport and exercise evolved according to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, shifting from considering sport as a healthy bastion to an activity exposed to disease like any other. Most media professional sporting events received great attention on Twitter, while grassroots and women’s sport were relegated to a residual role. The analysis of the 30 topics identified focused on the social, sporting, economic and health impact of the pandemic on the sport. Sporting cancellations, leisure time and socialization disruptions, club bankruptcies, sports training and athletes’ uncertain career development were the main concerns. Although general health measures appeared in the tweets analyzed, those addressed to sports practice were relatively scarce. Finally, this study shows the importance of Twitter as a means of conveying social attitudes towards sports and COVID-19 and its potential to generate alternative responses in future stages of the pandemic.