Knowledge, Practice and Attitudes of Preventive Measures against Coronavirus Infection among Pregnant Women in Egypt

Abstract

Background: Unprecedented measures have been adopted to control the rapid spread of the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in Egypt. Pregnant women adherence to control measures is affected by their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19. Aim: Aim of the study was to assess the knowledge, practice and attitudes of preventive measures against COVID-19 infection among pregnant women. Subjects& methods: Research design: Across sectional design was used. Setting: The study was carried out in two Maternal and Child Health Centers (Alnahal Medical Centre and Sheba MCH) that are affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Population in Zagazig City, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt, between the period from January 2020 to April 2020. Subjects: All eligible pregnant women who attended for antenatal care during the study period by using simple random sampling. Tools of data collection: A structured interviewing questionnaire that consists of five parts, part one, socio-demographic and obstetric data, part two sources of information on preventive measure against COVID-19 infection, part three, knowledge towards COVID-19 infection and its prevention measures, part four practice of preventive measures of COVID-19 infection and part five attitudes towards COVID-19 infection. Results: The findings of this research showed that more than half of women (57.6%) had satisfactory level of total knowledge about the preventive measure of COVID-19 infection. However, the majority of women (87.6%) had unsatisfactory level of total practice of preventive measures of COVID-19. Educational level and multiparty were factors significantly associated with poor practice of the preventive measures against coronavirus-19 infection among pregnant women. Conclusion: The study showed that most of the participants had adequate knowledge of preventive measures against COVID-19 infection but the practice of these preventive measures were poor among the participants. Recommendations: Provide continuous health educational program on practice of using preventive measures against COVID-19 infection especially among pregnant women.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Toward Corona virus Infection Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Public Hospitals in Three Wollega Zones, Ethiopia

“…11 , 13 The current level of knowledge of pregnant women about COVID-19 was also higher than found in research conducted in Egypt which showed that 57.6% of women had a satisfactory level of knowledge. 14 The possible reason may be that all the former studies were conducted during the earlier stage of the pandemic compared with the current study and coronavirus risk communication across the world may have made a positive impact on the knowledge of the target population. The nature of the study could be the possible reason for the discrepancy; the level of health-related knowledge is expected to be high among the populations which are on follow up at health facility.…”

Assessment of Pregnant women’s Practices Concerning Measures taken by Pregnant Women for Prevention of (Covid19) at Primary Health Care Centers in Baghdad City

“…This study supported by Metwally& Desoky. (2020), Multiparous women had a higher level of practice than primiparous women, according to the study (64.40 % & 6.98%) respectively [11] .…”

“…This result of the study agrees with Metwally& Desoky (2020), that reported there were statistically significant relations between the studied women's level of practice about preventive measures against COVID-19 infection and their education level and parity with р-value <0.05. Women who had university education had higher practice level than other education levels (26.53% & 20.77% respectively), and the women whose income level was inadequate and just meet life expenses had higher positive practice about COVID-19 infection than those who had insufficient income (90.63%, 65.82 & 63.64% respectively) [11] .…”

“…More than two thirds of women (70.8%) reported to wear face mask when they had that symptoms, (62.7%) of them reported to stay at home and (52.7%) reported to inform their health care provider before going to hospital. The majority of women (89.2%) reported that the COVID-19 virus spreads via respiratory droplets of infected individuals [11] . While Abdulla, Akram, & Mardan Abullah (2021) that about 2/3rd of the participants were presented with poor practice (67.25%), while less than 1/3rd (32.75%) with good practice .For the participant practice response for preventing COVID-19 show that 73 (18.25.0%) choose the washing hands frequently as major preventive way, 59 (14.75%) said that a distance for 2 meters and more between the people can prevent the infection with disease, 123 (30.75%) choose wearing mask, (75.16%) choose do not touch eye, nose and mouth common way to prevent the infection, and 78 (19.5%) mentioned staying home was the way to prevent infection with the disease [5] .…”

Knowledge, attitude and practices about coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its spread among pregnant females in rural West Bengal, India

“…Similarly, study by Metwally et al, also reported television (45.90%), internet (25.70%), friends and relatives (18.90%) and health worker (9.50%) as the source of information. 14 This highlights the important role of internet and social media in dissemination of information during pandemic.…”