Education’s Impact On Children’s Knowledge Levels About COVID-19 And How To Prevent It In The Surabaya City

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new type of coronavirus that has never been previously identified in humans called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The CDC (2021) gave a Level 4 warning to Indonesia, which means that the transmission of COVID-19 in this country is very high. The health protocols followed by clean and healthy living behavior can be applied to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19. Therefore, programs based on health education and promotion to increase public awareness of the importance of complying with health protocols are urgently needed. This study aimed to know the profile of education?s impact on children?s knowledge about COVID-19 to implement COVID-19 transmission prevention behavior in everyday life. Methods: We provide an educational lecture about COVID-19 prevention for elementary and high school children. We observed gender, educational history, pretest scores, and posttest scores. The pretest and posttest data were then analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 application with the Paired Samples T-Test type of test to determine whether there were differences in the level of knowledge before and after educational activities. The data is presented in the form of a statistical table. Result: There were 18 samples of children as participants included in this study. Most of the children are female, most of them attend secondary school and high school levels. There was an increase in scores from pretest to posttest after participants were given education lecture about COVID-19 and how to prevent it. Conclusion: Providing education using PowerPoint, educational videos, and direct handwashing practice can increase knowledge about COVID-19 and its prevention. Continuous education is needed to increase knowledge & improve public perception and behavior towards COVID-19.