Community’s misconception about COVID-19 and its associated factors in Satkhira, Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Misconception related to coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) have been spread out broadly and the the World Health Organization declared these as a major challenge to fight against the pandemic. This study aimed to assess COVID-19 related misconception among rural people in Bangladesh and associated socio-demographic and media related factors. Methods Multistage sampling method was used to collect data (n = 210) from three unions of Satkhira District, Bangladesh. The dependent variable was the presence of COVID-19 related misconception (Yes, No) which was generated based on respondents’ responses to a set of six questions on various types of misconception. Exposure variables were respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, mass media and social media exposure. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the characteristics of the respondents. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the factors associated with COVID-19 misconception. Results More than half of the study respondents had one or more COVID-19 related misconception. Over 50% of the total respondents considered this disease as a punishment from God. Besides, many of the respondents reported that they do not think the virus causing COVID-19 is dangerous (59%) and it is a disease (19%). Around 7% reported they believe the virus is the part of a virus war (7.2%). The bivariate analysis found the presence of socio-demographic factors of the respondents, as well as the factors related to social and mass media, were significantly associated with the COVID-19’s misconception. However, once all factors considered together in the multivariate model, misconception were found to be lower among secondary (AOR, 0.33, 95% CI: 0.13–0.84) and tertiary (AOR, 0.29, 95% CI: 0.09–0.92) educated respondents compared to the respondents with primary education. Conclusion This study obtained a very higher percentage of misconception about the COVID-19 among the respondents of Satkhira district in Bangladesh. This could be a potential challenge to fight against this pandemic which is now ongoing. Prioritizing mass and social media to disseminate evidence-based information as well as educate people about this disease are necessary.

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Misconceptions towards COVID-19 among Sub-Sahara Africans

“…A greater part of respondents believes Alcohol does not prevent COVID-19 neither does chloroquine cure COVID-19. The level of misconception is normal which is lower than similar researches (Baig et al, 2020;Bakebillah et al, 2021) where more than half of the respondents have a poor score of misconception. Irrespective of this normal level of misconception, there is still more to be done in terms of reducing misconceptions of people towards COVID-19.…”

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“…Lack of proper communication and information may lead to several unplanned consequences, a misconception that may intend to in uence response strategies during a pandemic outbreak [25,27]. Implications for policy and practice on the of the study, we anticipate the following recommendations could help stimulate strategies for scaling up COVID-19 testing:…”

“…Misconceptions about COVID-19 are considered one of the key challenges faced by many countries [26].This is mainly fascinated by fake information consumed by community members. For example, fake information about COVID-19 has misled people into low adherence to health protocols[25][26][27]. Based on the ndings of this recent study, community members desisted from being tested due to misconceptions about the virus.…”

“…The fear of being stigmatized even heightens this challenge. Notwithstanding that, misconceptions about the COVID-19 disease are signi cantly prevalent among rural residents[27]. The ndings renew the need to enhance public health education and community sensitization on major infectious diseases risks [26-27], through active community engagement targeting the vulnerable groups.…”

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“…Misconception, poor knowledge, and attitude toward COVID-19 can indirectly increase the risk of complications and deaths [13]. For example, many religious individuals assume that COVID-19 mostly affects non-religious or atheist persons [14]. Some individuals also feel that people in low-income countries have a stronger immune system than people in high-income countries; hence, they are less likely to contract COVID-19 [15,16].…”