Public Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 in Iran

Abstract

The first cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. It has spread rapidly around the world. Taking preventive measures by the public plays the most important role in infection prevention and control of the COVID-19. One of the major challenges in preventing and controlling COVID-19 has been the proliferation of misinformation on social media. In such a special epidemic, assessment of knowledge and attitude of the public will help to reduce the uncoordinated social behavior arising from misinformation. The purpose of this crosssectional online survey was to determine the level of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Iranian population toward outbreak of COVID-19. Data were collected by self-administrated questionnaire. Analytical statistics were performed on the results. The mean scores of respondents' KAP were 87.7, 59.3, and 89.6, respectively. Married and females participants, who work in healthcare systems, participants in the age group of 36 to 45 years with a higher level of education, and those who studied in the fields related to health gained significantly higher knowledge scores. Most respondents (63.7%) had a negative attitude towards the observance of appointed prevention principles by others. Also, the results showed a statistically significant positive correlation between all sections of KAP. Our findings suggest that despite the rapid dissemination of reliable and unreliable information about COVID-19 through cyberspace, the Iranian people have sufficient knowledge to deal with COVID-19 outbreak.

COVID-19 knowledge, attitude and frequent hand hygiene practices among taxi drivers and associated factors in urban areas of Ethiopia

“…Taxi drivers with an educational level of secondary (grades 9-12) or above were 7.55 times more likely to have good knowledge than individuals with primary education only. This result was supported by previous studies in Northwest Ethiopia [57,58], in Egypt [59,60], in Pakistan [50,61], in Syria [39], in South Korea [62], in Nepal [63,64], in Iran [54] and in…”

“…Taxi drivers who had a positive attitude were more likely to have good knowledge than those with a negative attitude. This was supported by previous studies in Nigeria [46], Pakistan [61], China [66], Bangladesh [56,67], Iran [54] and in Nepal [63]. On the other hand, drivers' place of residence showed significant association with knowledge about COVID-19.…”

“…It is much higher than the findings from other Ethiopian studies 37.59%, 41.3%, 42.9%, 45.89% and 60.5% [34][35][36][37][38], from Syria 60% [39], and from Pakistan 54.3% [40]. But this finding was lower than in some studies in Ethiopia 93.8%, 88.2% and 74.7% [41][42][43], from Nigeria 78.6%, 99.5% and 86.6% [44][45][46], from Cameroon 84.19% [47], from USA 80% [48], from Pakistan 75.5% and 93.2% [49,50], from Malaysia 80.5% [51], from China 89%, 90% and 82.34% [20,52,53], from Iran 87.7% [54] and from Bangladesh 54.87% and 61.2% [55,56]. This variation might be caused by differences in the study area and type of questions used.…”

“…In addition, good knowledge about COVID-19 was associated with a positive attitude towards COVID-19 prevention. This finding was supported by studies in Northwest Ethiopia [57], Bangladesh [67] and Iran [54].…”

“…But it is lower than found in other studies from Ethiopia 94.7% and 74% [41,42], Nigeria 79.5% and 80.6% [45,46], Malaysia 83.1% [51], Pakistan 86.5% and 75% [40,49], and from Bangladesh 78.9% [56]. The finding is higher than in some studies from Northwest Ethiopia 52.7% [57], from Uganda 21% [33], from Bangladesh 62.3% [68] and from Iran 59.3% [54]. This difference might be as a result of differences in target groups and type of questions used.…”