The Effect of Online Seminars on Public’s Knowledge About the Covid-19 Health Protocol in the New Normal Era

Abstract

Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory SyndromeCoronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Varioussteps have been taken to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic that iscurrently happening in Indonesia. Despite all the efforts of the government and themedia to educate the public to implement health protocols, the increase in thenumber of daily cases in Indonesia has not shown a decline. This encouragesresearchers to assess the level of public knowledge because it has an influence onindividual health behaviors that can contribute to pandemic control efforts. Thisresearch uses study method descriptive observational and quasi experimental preand post test design. The population in this study were 317 people who filled out aresearch questionnaire conducted by the IKM-IKK FK Unsri department. The 296respondents who filled out the online questionnaire completely obtained the meanage 32.17 ± 12.64, 73.0% female, 67.6% college graduate, 53.4% Christians, and themajority of jobs are college students and students (39.5%). It was found that theaverage value of respondents knowledge about the Covid-19 health protocolincreased from 4.87 ± 0.10 Becomes 5.12 ± 0.96 Likewise, respondents knowledgeabout health protocols in the new normal era increased from 3.65 ± 0.10 Becomes3.87 ± 0.43. Comparative analysis showed a significant change in knowledge of theCovid-19 health protocol and new normal respondents after attending an onlineseminar, namely p 0.026 and p = 0.030. So, it can be concluded that online seminarshave a significant effect on changing the knowledge of the general public about theCovid-19 and new normal health protocols.