The Medical Journal of Basrah University

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 an international public health emergency on January 30th and demanded coordinated action from all countries to contain its rapid spread, and a pandemic on March 11th due to its continued spread across countries and continents. During a pandemic, the information gap can have negative consequences by increasing stress and instability. Furthermore, unfavorable attitudes and practices, as well as other misconceptions and beliefs, can intensify the disaster's devastating effects.
Aims: 1. To determine the knowledge, attitude and practices of people in Basrah about COVID-19 pandemic. 2. To know the main source of peoples, information.
Method: This study is a cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of persons selected throughout the period from 25th April to 1st August 2021. The study involved 402 individuals who attended primary health care centers in Basah city center.
Results: In this study, 25.6% of the participants aged 30-39 years and 34.6% of them had secondary school education, 51.7% were females. Majority of the study sample (71.6%) were married. More than half (62.4%) showed self or family history of COVID-19. Half of the participants in this study had moderate level of knowledge, social media was the source of information for 54.2% of the participants, 67.4% of the participants didn’t know the correct symptoms of COVID-19 disease, and also 82% didn’t know the incubation period, while 90.8% know the mode of transmission. Highest percentage (40.5%) had poor attitude, and 59%had poor practice level.
Conclusions: The highest percentage of the participants had moderate knowledge, poor attitude and poor practices. Social media is the main source of information about COVID-19 among the studied sample.
Recommendation: This study recommends enhancing awareness of people about the importance of control and preventive measures against COVID-19 virus in decreasing the prevalence of the disease.