Knowledge, attitudes and practices of the Chinese public with respect to coronavirus disease (COVID-19): An online cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a pandemic. The knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of the public play a major role in the prevention and control of infectious diseases. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the KAP of the Chinese public and to assess potential influencing factors related to practices.Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in China in February 2020 via a self-designed questionnaire comprising 33 questions assessing KAP.Results: For the 2,136 respondents from 30 provinces or municipalities in China, the accurate response rate for the knowledge section ranged from 72.7% to 99.5%, and the average was 91.2%. Regarding attitude section, the percentage of positive attitudes (“strongly agree” and “agree”) ranged from 94.7% to 99.7%, and the average value was 98.0%. The good practices (“always” and “often”) results ranged from 76.1% to 99.5%, and the average value was 96.8%. The independent samples t-test revealed that gender and ethnic differences had no effect on knowledge, attitude or behaviour (P>0.05). However, knowledge was associated with age (t=4.842, p<0.001), marital status (t=-5.323, p<0.001), education level (t=8.441, p<0.001), occupation (t=-10.858, p<0.001), and place of residence (t=7.929, p<0.001). Similarly, attitude was associated with marital status (t=-2.383, p=0.017), education level (t=2.106, p=0.035), occupation (t=-4.834, p<0.001), and place of residence (t=4.242, p<0.001). The multiple linear regression analysis results showed that the factors influencing practices were knowledge (t=-3.281, p=0.001), attitude (t=18.756, p<0.001), occupation (t=-3.860, p<0.001), education level (t=3.136, p=0.002), and place of residence (t=3.257, p=0.001).Conclusions: The Chinese public exhibited a good level of knowledge of COVID-19, a positive attitude, and high adherence to good practices. COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes and practices were affected by age, marital status, education level, occupation, and place of residence to varying degrees. In addition, practices were affected by knowledge and attitudes towards COVID-19.

Insight into the accuracy of COVID-19 beliefs predicts behavior during the pandemic

“…Here, we found that with an average object-level accuracy of d' =2.0, German citizens are, by and large, well-informed about the coronavirus. This result is in line with prior research demonstrating overall high levels of public knowledge about the virus, and the pandemic (Al-Hanawi et al, 2020;Azlan et al, 2020;Gao et al, 2020). Metacognitive accuracy was worse, however.…”

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in South Korea

“…Specifically, males and less educated individuals had less knowledge about COVID-19, rendering them particularly vulnerable to the epidemic. This result is similar to prior research investigating the association between sociodemographic factors and knowledge level during the COVID-19 pandemic in China [34,48] and Hong Kong [53]. Many health communications studies have examined the phenomena of knowledge inequality.…”

“…Second, attitudes, especially efficacy beliefs, had a significant and robust impact on practicing preventive behaviors, implying that promoting preventive behaviors toward COVID-19 would require promoting both knowledge and efficacy beliefs among the public. Consistent with evidence that efficacy beliefs serve as significant predictors of preventive behaviors [6,48,52,53], this study also displayed that for the public to perform precautionary behaviors after acquiring information, they then need to believe that such practices would be effective. For example, people need to believe that washing hands would keep them from being infected, beyond merely informed so, to perform and sustain the behavior.…”

“…The infodemic is a tremendous and ongoing challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic [43][44][45]. Information production and consumption have increased significantly since the start of the pandemic, meaning the public is more easily exposed to misinformation [46][47][48]. During health crises, engaging the public with behavior change initiatives may be profoundly limited when disseminated health information conflicts with existing beliefs stemming from culture and system [49,50], and rumors or misinformation are rampant across communication sources [51].…”

Is COVID-19 a hoax? Correlation between beliefs related to COVID-19 and the use of preventive measures in India

“…Consistent with evidence that efficacy belief serves as significant predictors of preventive behaviours. [22][23][24] In our study, there was a significant association between the level of education and the reason for this pandemic, where >75% professionals and graduates believed in the existence of the virus. However, 81% of the professionals and 51% graduates believed this was a man-made virus.…”