Community knowledge and behavior about covid-19 and their attitude toward public policies implemented against this pandemic in the Northwest of Iran
Shiraz E Medical Journal
; 22(12), 2021.
Article
in English
| Scopus | ID: covidwho-1566772
ABSTRACT
Background:
The awareness of people’s health knowledge and behavior on COVID-19 has helped education and health promotion policies, and examination of people’s opinions on governance measures against this disease will guide policymakers in making more decisions and responsiveness.Objectives:
This study aimed to investigate people’s knowledge and behaviors toward COVID-19 and their views on adopted public policies against this disease in Maragheh, a city in the Northwest of Iran.Methods:
This study was a cross-sectional, analytical study that was done in urban areas of Maragheh from 13 November to 20 De-cember 2020. The sample size was estimated at 672 participants, and the sampling method was stratified random. The data collec-tion instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire that consisted of four sections demographic information, health behaviors, respondent’s knowledge of COVID-19, and their viewpoints on adopted public policies against this disease and was shared online. The one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression were used to analyze data with SPSS version 23.Results:
The mean scores of people’s knowledge (6.42 ± 1.2) out of 9 and health behaviors (34.8 ± 3.9) of 36 were moderate. The majority of respondents had high levels of knowledge and also behavior about keeping the physical distance (98.5%) and proper handwashing (97.9%). Knowledge (β = 0.23) and male (β =-0.27) were the predictors of health behaviors (p < 0.001, F = 12.47). The investigation of myths on COVID-19 indicated that 17% and 41.1% of the respondents believed that alcohol consumption and using garlic and herbal drinks are effective in the prevention and 57.7% of them believed that holding the breath for 10 seconds is a sign of being healthy. People’s views on the COVID-19 control policies were assessed to be at the medium level (48.2 ± 7.5) of 65. The most effective policies against COVID-19 from the people’s opinions consisted of lockdown policies (96.4%), schools’ closure (95.9%), and constraints on intercity trips (91.3%).Conclusions:
It seems necessary to strengthen measures on health knowledge promotion and implementation of health education interventions on protective behaviors of COVID-19 in such a way that right beliefs are replaced with wrong ones. Based on positive public opinions on Lockdown interventions, re-applying these policies is recommended to get the cities out of the high-risk situa-tion. © 2021, Author(s).
COVID-19; Health, behavior; Health, governance; Health, knowledge; adult; alcohol, consumption; analytical, research; Article; attitude; behavior; coronavirus, disease, 2019; cross-sectional, study; female; financial, management; hand, washing; household; human; human, experiment; knowledge; lockdown; male; pandemic; public, policy; questionnaire; social, distance; urban, area
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Scopus
Language:
English
Journal:
Shiraz E Medical Journal
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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