Assessment of COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude, practice and professional risk factors associated to develop infection among the police personnel of Bangladesh during the rapid rise period of the outbreak

Abstract

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Bangladesh police have been engaged in different COVID-19 related containment activities consequently they are being badly affected and sacrifice their lives. However, as a newly outbreak pandemic, there may have lack of proper knowledge, attitude and practices in handling to prevent rapid spreading of deadly COVID-19 virus in Bangladesh.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> This cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the KAP and associated risk factors with COVID-19 among police personnel during pandemic. Total 2290 police personnel from different metropolitan cities were included and data were collected over telephone interview with an administered questionnaire following a convenient sampling technique. Bivariate associations between categorical variables were examined using Chi-square test. We also explored the independent risk factors for COVID-19 infection using binary logistic regression.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Out of 2290 respondents 458 (20%) were found to be COVID-19 positive and majority (42.5%) of them were male (97.5%) and belonged to age group of 31-40 years. Our study showed that an increased risk of COVID-19 infection for those who stayed in police barrack (OR=3.45; 95% CI:1.21-6.42; p<0.021), not practicing social distancing always (OR=2.13; 95% CI:1.12-5.31; p<0.031) and not wearing mask appropriately (OR=2.15; 95% CI: 1.31-4.52; p<0.003). <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> This study provides a unique baseline of KAP and professional risk factors among the police personnel in Bangladesh on COVID-19 which indicated that, community-based health campaigns are obligatory to hold expectant attitudes and practice appropriate intervention measures. KAP study aimed at other front liners should be urgently addressed.</p>