Basic Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Middle East and North African Populations Toward COVID-19

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the basic knowledge, attitude, and practice among people from nine Middle Eastern and North African countries about COVID-19 symptoms, modes of transmission, acceptance of recovered patients, and practice of some basic preventive measures.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data was collected from 3515 participants in nine Middle Eastern and North African countries using an online self-administered questionnaire to assess participants' basic knowledge, attitude, and practice of some preventive measures related to COVID-19.Results: In this study, most of the participants were aware of the basic preventive measures against coronavirus. Despite this awareness, the practice of these measures was low, with a significant variation among participating countries and gender. Social media was the major source of their information. More than half of participants (53.2%) would not accept recovered patients in the community without protective measures, and the majority (84%) of them believed that people living in hot and sunny areas are less susceptible and affected by COVID-19.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that participants of Middle Eastern and North African countries have relatively good knowledge and attitudes regarding COVID-19. Still, they have unsatisfactory preventive practices, and more than half of them refuse to accept recovered patients as normal in the community without protective measures.Funding Statement: None.Declaration of Interests: All the authors have no conflict of interest to declare.Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the research ethics committee of each participating country (Lebanon: Institutional Review Board Of Beirut Arab University; Algeria: Comité Consultatif d'Ethique du Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Betna; Sudan: Research Ethics Committee of Sudan University of Science and Technology; Egypt: Research Ethics Committee of Faculty of Pharmacy in Alexandria University; Libya: Research Ethics Committee of Libyan International Medical University; Morocco: Research Ethics Committee, Polydisciplinary Faculty of Taroudant, IBN ZOHR University; Tunisia: Comité d'Ethique de la recherche de la Faculté de Médecine de Monastir, Monastir University; Jordan: Institutional Review Board of The Hashemite University; Chad: Direction de la Recherche et de l'Innovation, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche et de l'Innovation).