Knowledge, Attitude, and Prevention Practices Toward Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background Coronavirus disease is a major global public health problem. The contagious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was declared a pandemic following the outbreak of cases of respiratory illness in 2019. While studies assessed COVID-19 knowledge, attitude, and practice in Ethiopia the findings were highly variable and inconsistent. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 Therefore, this study assessed the pooled status of knowledge, attitude, and prevention practices regarding COVID -19 in Ethiopia. Methods International and national electronic databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Google, were systematically searched. All observational studies on COVID-19 knowledge, attitude, and prevention practices in Ethiopia were included. We assessed heterogeneity among the included studies using the Cochrane Q test statistics and I 2 test. Lastly, a random-effects meta-analysis model was fitted to estimate the pooled proportion of knowledge, attitude, and prevention practices toward COVID-19 in Ethiopia. Results Our search identified 206 studies, 13 of which were included in the final analysis. Adequate knowledge, good attitude, and good prevention practice towards COVID-19 in Ethiopia were observed in 70.25% (95% confidence interval [CI], 61.82, 78.02), 69.08% (95% CI: 55.42, 81.24), and 41.62% (95% CI: 27.77, 56.17) of total participants across studies, respectively. Conclusion The results of this study revealed low proportions of adequate knowledge, attitudes, and preventive practices toward COVID-19 in Ethiopia. The lowest pooled proportion was observed in the Amhara region. These findings indicate the need to revise plans and policies to improve the knowledge, attitudes, and prevention practices of people towards COVID-19 in Ethiopia, especially in the Amhara region.

COVID-19 preventive practice and associated factors in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In the current study, the overall pooled level of poor COVID-19 preventive practice in Ethiopia was 51.60% (95% CI: 40.30–62.90). This finding was consistent with previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses in Ethiopia that found the pooled prevalence of poor COVID-19 prevention practice to be 58.3% [ 40 ], 40% [ 41 ] and 47% [ 42 ]. However, when compared with global systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the pooled proportion of poor COVID-19 preventive practice in Ethiopia is higher, with less than a 30% pooled level of poor COVID-19 prevention practice globally [ [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] ].…”

“…Poor COVID-19 preventive practice has been found to be more prevalent in community-based studies than in studies of patients with chronic disease patients and visitors to health services. This may be due to good institutional preventative procedures compared with practices in communities; this finding is similar to the results of Azene et al [ 40 ]. However, a subgroup analysis revealed that 61.65% of health professionals had a significant degree of inadequate preventive practice.…”

Willingness to Get Vaccinated and Attitude Toward COVID-19 among Humanities and Social Sciences Students

“…A study by El-Elimat et al (2021) examined the Jordanian population's acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, stating that younger individuals were more likely to accept COVID-19 vaccinations. In addition to this, Azene et al (2021) found that in Ethiopia, there have been insufficient preventive measures on COVID-19. In another study by Acharya et al (2021) on the attitude of immigrants toward COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in South Korea, more than half of the research respondents (55.3%) were willing to get COVID-19 vaccinations, with their main concern being vaccine safety.…”

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

“…Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, regular update of scientific literature is essential for initiating empirical evidence on interventions and strategies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic more conveniently. For this purpose, a comprehensive and timely updated systematic evaluation of existing evidence is highly needed, whereas a few systematic review and meta-analysis has been published on the KAP of COVID-19 ( 15 , 17 – 19 ). Notwithstanding, region- or country-based systematic reviews lack; for instance, Ethiopia ( 17 , 20 ) and the United States ( 20 ) have reported publishing country-based systematic reviews on the KAP of COVID-19.…”

“…For this purpose, a comprehensive and timely updated systematic evaluation of existing evidence is highly needed, whereas a few systematic review and meta-analysis has been published on the KAP of COVID-19 ( 15 , 17 – 19 ). Notwithstanding, region- or country-based systematic reviews lack; for instance, Ethiopia ( 17 , 20 ) and the United States ( 20 ) have reported publishing country-based systematic reviews on the KAP of COVID-19. Furthermore, knowledge and public perception being culture-based, interventions should focus on the data from the respective culture.…”