Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Related to COVID-19 and Its Determinants Among Prisoners, Southern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may affect anybody, and prisoners are a susceptible group in terms of the risk of contracting infectious illnesses owing to a variety of situations such as overcrowding, confinement, and poor cleanliness. Therefore, this study aimed to assess prisoners' Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) of COVID-19 and its determinants in southern Ethiopia. METHOD: The Institutional cross-section study was conducted among 404 prisoners selected using simple random sampling obtained from the prisoner's registration book. To collect data from prisoners, an interviewer-based face-to-face data-collecting technique was used. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression was used to identify determinants of KAP toward COVID-19. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the prisoners had limited understanding and poor preventive strategies application toward COVID-19. Being male, living in a rural area, having a low educational standing, and being a farmer were related to limited knowledge, negative attitude, and poor practice toward COVID-19. Furthermore, having little understanding was linked with poor practice toward COVID-19. As a result, the focus should be on convicts, creating awareness, and addressing specific socioeconomic features of prisoners, as well as boosting COVID-19 preventive activities that should get attention in the prison.

Prevalence of Cigarette Smoking and Associated Factors among Residents of Hossana Town, Southern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco is the only legal product that kills a large number of its consumers when used as intended by producers. Information on cigarette smoking and associated factors among adults at the household level is very limited. OBJECTIVE: To assess prevalence of cigarette smoking and associated factors among residents of Hossana town, Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2020. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional study design was performed. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression was used to identify risk factors of cigarette smoking. Variables significant at a p value of less than 0.05 were considered as independent predictors. Hosmer and Lemeshow test statistics were done to test the model fitness for the final model. Similarly, multicollinearity was checked by using collinearity statistics (tolerance and VIf). RESULT: In total, 591 people responded to the survey, resulting in a 98.2% response rate. Among the study participants, cigarette smokers were 183 (31.0%). Educational status, alcohol use, and parental smoking were all found to have a significant relationship with cigarette smoking among research participants in Hosanna town. When compared to people with a college education or above, illiterates are approximately nine times more likely to consume cigarettes (95% CI = 9.058 (3.52, 22.469)). Alcoholics are about twice as likely as nondrinkers to smoke cigarettes (95% CI = 2.288 (1.548, 3.383)). Those who have cigarette-smoking parents are approximately twice as likely as their counterparts to smoke cigarettes (95% CI = 2.288 (1.548, 3.383)). CONCLUSION: According to this survey, the prevalence of cigarette smoking was high. Furthermore, cigarette smoking was linked to illiteracy, alcohol consumption, and parental smoking in this study.

Influence of Social Media Use on Practice of COVID-19 Preventive Measures Among Ethiopian Residents: An Online Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Infection with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a severe public health issue worldwide. A broad amount of information related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was disseminated by social media in Ethiopia. To date, there is limited evidence on the influence of social media use for COVID-19-related information on COVID-19 preventive practice. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the influence of social media use on the practice of COVID-19 preventive measures in Ethiopia. METHODS: This study used an anonymous Internet-based online cross-sectional survey using Google Forms to collect the data from the respondents from May 15 to June 17, 2020, in Ethiopia. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between social media use as a predictor and COVID-19 preventive practice, after adjusting for socio-demographic and risk perception of COVID-19 variables. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: A total of 372 respondents have participated in the study. From 372, a total of 208 (55.9%) respondents in this study were male. Study participants who had good use of social media to get COVID-19-related information were 9.5 times more engaged in COVID-19 preventive practices compared with study participants who had poor use of social media to get COVID-19-related information (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 9.59; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.70-16.13). Also, study participants who had a high-risk perception of COVID-19 were 2.6 times more engaged in COVID-19 practices compared with study participants who had a low-risk perception of COVID-19 (AOR = 2.63; 95% CI: 1.58-4.38). Study participants who were students at the time of this study were 4 times more likely to show an adequate COVID-19 preventive practice score compared with those who had another occupational status (AOR = 4.07; 95% CI: 1.66-9.98). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that the use of social media networks can have a positive effect on the practice of preventive measures and public safety against COVID-19; high-risk perception contributed to preventive activities against COVID-19. Social networking platforms can be used by public health agencies as an important method to raise public health understanding by disseminating concise messages to targeted audiences.