COVID-19 preventive practices and associated factors among high school and preparatory school students in Dessie City, Ethiopia.

Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, the most pretentious sector besides the economy is the education system. Ethiopia is not equipped with the infrastructure and facilities to provide online classes for students at all levels. Hence, all institutions were re-opened with mandatory infection prevention and control (IPC) protocols such as the use of face masks, physical distancing, shifts in classes, and routine hand washing practices with soap and water to restrict the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, there has been no monitoring and follow- up and there is no data on IPC compliance among school children in the country. The purpose of this study was to examine the COVID-19 preventive practices and their associated factors among high and preparatory school students in Dessie City, Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out by using a pre-tested face-to-face applied structured questionnaire and direct observations from March 8 to March 20, 2021, in five high and preparatory schools in Dessie City. The sample size was proportionally allocated in each school based on the students' total number registered in the first academic semester, then stratified by grade level, and proportionally allocated to each grade and section. Finally, a simple random sampling method was used to select study participants. Variables with p-values < 0.25 in the bivariate logistic regression analysis were entered into the multivariate logistic regression model. Results: This study involved 422 students with a response rate of 98.8%. The level of good preventive practices was 43.7%. After adjusting for covariates, female, positive attitudes, received IPC training and clear accessible sharing of information and feedback with parents, students and teachers were identified as predictors of good precaution practices. Conclusion: The prevalence of good prevention practices for COVID-19 among students was relatively very low. Therefore, the Department of Health and Education of Dessie City and each school should implement environmental health programs and promote prevention practices in high schools and preparatory schools.

COVID-19 preventive practices and associated factors among high school and preparatory school students in Dessie City, Ethiopia

Background As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, the most pretentious sector besides the economy is the education system. Ethiopia is not equipped with the infrastructure and facilities to provide online classes for students at all levels. Hence, all institutions were re-opened with mandatory infection prevention and control (IPC) protocols such as the use of face masks, physical distancing, shifts in classes, and routine hand washing practices with soap and water to restrict the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, there has been no monitoring and follow- up and there is no data on IPC compliance among school children in the country. The purpose of this study was to examine the COVID-19 preventive practices and their associated factors among high and preparatory school students in Dessie City, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out by using a pre-tested face-to-face applied structured questionnaire and direct observations from March 8 to March 20, 2021, in five high and preparatory schools in Dessie City. The sample size was proportionally allocated in each school based on the students' total number registered in the first academic semester, then stratified by grade level, and proportionally allocated to each grade and section. Finally, a simple random sampling method was used to select study participants. Variables with p-values < 0.25 in the bivariate logistic regression analysis were entered into the multivariate logistic regression model. Results This study involved 422 students with a response rate of 98.8%. The level of good preventive practices was 43.7%. After adjusting for covariates, female, positive attitudes, received IPC training and clear accessible sharing of information and feedback with parents, students and teachers were identified as predictors of good precaution practices. Conclusion The prevalence of good prevention practices for COVID-19 among students was relatively very low. Therefore, the Department of Health and Education of Dessie City and each school should implement environmental health programs and promote prevention practices in high schools and preparatory schools.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Misconceptions About COVID-19 Prevention Practices Among High and Preparatory School Students in Dessie City, Ethiopia.

Background: Knowledge, attitudes, and misconceptions of students about COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) prevention have been examined in relatively few studies. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and misconceptions about COVID-19 prevention practices among high and preparatory school (grades 9 to 12) students in Dessie City, Ethiopia. Methods: This school-based cross-sectional study used a pre-tested structured questionnaire and direct observations from March 1 to 30, 2021 in 5 high and preparatory school students in Dessie City, Ethiopia. The sample size was proportionally allocated in each school based on the number of students registered in the first semester, stratified by grade level, and section. Data analysis employed 3 binary logistic regression models (Models I, II and III) with 95% CI (confidence interval). Bivariate analysis (crude odds ratio [COR]) and multivariable analysis (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]) were used. Variables with P-values <0.3 in the bivariate analysis were retained in the multivariable logistic regression analysis for each model. Variables with significance levels P<0.05 in the multivariable analysis of each model was identified as significant factors. Results: The levels of good knowledge, positive attitudes, and low misconceptions were 74.8%, 60.2%, and 56.1%, respectively. After adjusting for the covariates, grade 12, positive attitude and living in households with more than 5 members were identified as factors significantly associated with good knowledge about COVID-19 prevention practices. Good knowledge of COVID-19 prevention practices, household size >5, infection prevention and control (IPC) training, and low level of misconceptions were factors significantly associated with positive attitudes, whereas students age ≥18 years, positive attitude, and IPC training were factors significantly associated with less misconceptions about COVID-19 prevention measures. Conclusion: The prevalence of good knowledge, positive attitude, and low level of misconceptions of prevention practices for COVID-19 among students was relatively low. Therefore, Dessie City Health and Education Department and each high and preparatory school should implement continuous monitoring programs to ensure high prevention awareness and promote preventive behavior towards COVID-19.

Knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices towards COVID-19 and associated factors among adult hospital visitors in South Gondar Zone Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently the critical health problem of the globe, including Ethiopia. Visitors of healthcare facilities are the high-risk groups due to the presence of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the healthcare setting. Increasing the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards COVID-19 prevention among hospital visitors are very important to prevent transmissions of the pandemic despite the lack of evidence remains a challenge in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the status of knowledge, attitude, and preventive practice towards COVID-19 and associated factors among hospital visitors in South Gondar Zone Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study design was employed during August 1 to 30, 2020 from randomly selected 404 adult hospital visitors in South Gondar Zone Hospitals, Northwest Ethiopia. The data was collected using interviewer-administered questionnaire. The outcome of this study was good or poor knowledge, positive or negative attitude and good or poor preventive practice towards COVID-19. Three different binary logistic regression models with 95% CI (Confidence interval) was used for data analysis. For each mode, bivariable analysis (crude odds ratio [COR]) and multivariable analysis (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]) was used during data analysis. From the bivariable analysis, variables with a p-value <0.25 were retained into the multivariable logistic regression analysis. From the multivariable logistic regression analysis, variables with a significance level of p-value <0.05 were taken as factors independently associated with knowledge, attitude and preventive practices towards COVID-19. MAIN FINDINGS: About 69.3% of the respondents had good knowledge, 62.6% had a positive attitude, and 49.3% had good preventive practice towards the prevention of COVID-19. We found that factors significantly associated with good knowledge about COVID-19 were educational status who can read and write (AOR = 2.78; 95%CI: 1.18-6.56) and college and above (AOR = 6.15; 95%CI: 2.18-17.40), and use of social media (AOR = 2.96; 95%CI: 1.46-6.01). Furthermore, factors significantly associated with a positive attitude towards COVID-19 includes the presence of chronic illnesses (AOR = 5.00; 95%CI; 1.71-14.67), training on COVID-19 (AOR = 3.91; 95%CI: 1.96-7.70), and peer/family as a source of information (AOR = 2.45; 95%CI: 1.06-5.63). Being a student (AOR = 7.70; 95%CI: 1.15-15.86) and participants who had a good knowledge on COVID-19 (AOR = 4.49; 95%CI: 2.41-8.39) were factors significantly associated with good practice towards COVID-19. CONCLUSION: We found that knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices towards prevention of COVID-19 among adult hospital visitors were low. Therefore, we recommended that different intervention strategies for knowledge, attitude and preventive practices are urgently needed to control the transmission of COVID-19 among adult hospital visitors. Health education of those who could not read and write about COVID-19 knowledge issues and advocating use of social media that transmit messages about COVID-19 are highly encouraged to increase the good knowledge status of adult hospital visitors. Furthermore, providing training about COVID-19 prevention methods and using various sources of information about COVID-19 will help for improving positive attitude towards COVID-19 prevention, whereas for increasing the status of good preventive practices towards COVID-19, improving the good knowledge about COVID-19 of adult hospital visitors are essential.