Attitude and preventive practices towards COVID-19 disease and the impact of awareness training on knowledge of the disease among correctional officers

Johnson Okoro,Ambrose Ekeroku,Jude Owoh,Joel Nkire,Martins Onuoha,Tobechukwu Odionye,Benedicta Nweze,Chinenye Ezeonwuka

doi:10.35241/emeraldopenres.13839.1

Abstract

COVID-19 disease remains a public health emergency of international concern. Efforts at the global and national levels are being made to control its spread. The Nigerian Correctional Service is also proactive in the fight against the disease by organizing COVID-19 awareness training for correctional officers. We conducted a pre- and post-test assessment of COVID-19 knowledge among correctional officers in Enugu State Command to determine the impact of awareness training on their knowledge level. The study also assessed correctional officers’ attitude and preventive practices towards the disease. The mean knowledge score was 19.34 out of 25, and the awareness training significantly improved the participants’ COVID-19 knowledge. We found a significant moderate, positive correlation between knowledge and attitude/practice, and a significantly higher knowledge level among those with higher educational qualifications. The majority of the respondents (87.9%) believed that there were confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria, whereas 85.1%, 78.7%, and 75.9% believed that there were cases in other parts of the world, the world will win the battle against COVID-19, and that there will be successful control of the disease, respectively. Regular hand washing with soap and water was practiced by 87.9% of the participants, whereas 84.4%, 83%, and 58.9%, wore face masks in public places, practiced social distancing, and avoided crowded places, respectively. Obtaining information from multiple sources was the commonest (53.2%), and this was followed by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (26.2%).

Highlights

COVID-19 is a novel viral disease discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in 2019 and is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Chen et al, 2020)
Ethical considerations Permission to carry out this study among correctional officers was obtained from the Nigerian Correctional Service with reference number ES/EP.124/Vol.11/30, which was approved on 4th June, 2020
Our study presents the results of the preventive practices and impact of awareness training on COVID-19 knowledge among correctional officers

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 is a novel viral disease discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in 2019 and is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Chen et al, 2020). Humanto-human transmission from respiratory droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces has been implicated in subsequent cases (Adhikari et al, 2020; Hassan et al, 2020; Li et al, 2020). The symptoms of this highly contagious disease include dry cough, fever, anosmia (loss of smell), weakness, headache, body pains, vomiting, sore throat, and respiratory difficulty, and the onset of symptoms ranges from 1–14 days (Ahmed, 2020; Wang et al, 2020). Other vulnerability factors are obesity, underlying medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus, systemic hypertension and other cardiac pathologies, and immunecompromising diseases such as HIV infection (Ahmed, 2020; Chen et al, 2020; Guan et al, 2020; Huang et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2020; Zhou et al, 2020). Mortality rate has been reported to be higher among these categories of people (Guan et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2020)

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