Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Towards COVID-19 Among Ecuadorians During the Outbreak: An Online Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Preventing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (causative agent for COVID-19) requires implementing contact and respiratory precautions. Modifying human behavior is challenging and requires understanding knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAPs) regarding health threats. This study explored KAPs among people in Ecuador. A cross-sectional, internet-based questionnaire was used to assess knowledge about COVID-19, attitudes toward ability to control COVID-19, self-reported practices related to COVID-19, and demographics. A total of 2399 individuals participated. Participants had moderate to high levels of knowledge. Participants expressed mixed attitudes about the eventual control of COVID-19 in Ecuador. Participants reported high levels of adoption of preventive practices. Binomial regression analysis suggests unemployed individuals, househusbands/housewives, or manual laborers, as well as those with an elementary school education, have lower levels of knowledge. Women, people over 50 years of age, and those with higher levels of schooling were the most optimistic. Men, individuals 18-29, single, and unemployed people took the riskiest behaviors. Generally, knowledge was not associated with optimism or with practices. Our findings indicate knowledge about COVID-19 is insufficient to prompt behavioral change among Ecuadorians. Since current COVID-19 control campaigns seek to educate the public, these efforts' impacts are likely to be limited. Given attitudes determine people's actions, further investigation into the factors underlying the lack of confidence in the ability of the world, and of Ecuador, to overcome COVID-19, is warranted. Edu-communicational campaigns should be accompanied by efforts to provide economically disadvantaged populations resources to facilitate adherence to recommendations to prevent the spread of the virus.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preventative Practices (KAPs) Towards COVID-19 Among International Students in China

“…However, we cannot conclude that there is a growing participation of males in social science studies with the reason that the presence of male students at the time of the survey was more, as many studies on a similar topic have proved to have more female participation with a huge gap of leading as compared to the one found in our study. 15,[30][31][32][33] Furthermore, it is found that the majority of international students were young, single, and they were doing either medicine or engineering-related programs, something that mainly contributed to their protracted stay of more than 2 years, as many of these courses are up to 5 years before graduating. About studying in China, there are a lot of reasons behind the attraction of the two aforementioned courses, the main of which was that many Chinese universities are highly equipped with the state of the art technologies aptly positioned to provide the best training in the medical and engineering courses and also the affordability of academic expenses in China as compared to other countries.…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 pandemic in America: A preliminary systematic review

“…The remaining 172 full-text articles were examined based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Finally, thirteen (13) articles [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] were included in this systematic review. The PRISMA Statement flow diagram, that consisted of four phases i.e.…”

“…Factors such as gender, age, education level annual income and political preference have influenced the KAP about COVID-19 [30,31,35,36].…”

“…According to Bates et al [31], the weakest or marginalized groups of the Ecuadorian citizens i.e. unemployed citizens, manual labourers and less educated showed unsatisfactory levels of knowledge about COVID-19.…”

“…The most marginalized communities, with low levels of education and minimal incomes, are generally most impacted by pandemics because they simultaneously face other dangerous threats to their psychophysical health [60]. It is not at all surprising that wider gaps on KAP levels were generally found among elderly, less educated and rural residents including Latin immigrant in the USA [30,31,61]. The socioeconomic discrepancy between rural and urban residents could explain in part the differences in knowledge and behavioral intentions [62].…”