Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Regarding Covid-19 Outbreak in Turkey: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 infection, which has been increasing all over the world since December 2019 and has experienced its second and third waves in 2020 and 2021, has created fear in the society. Despite the fact that this infection has been fought for about 3 years, it is very important to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills of the society against disease X (i.e. an unidentified future pandemic) epidemic such as COVID-19 in terms of infection control. The research was cross-sectional in the period that we can call the early days of the pandemic. Data were collected from a total of 312 individuals who attended the Ankara City Hospital Blood Collection Unit between November 1 and November 30, 2020 and accepted participation in the study. The patient information, attitude and behavior form prepared based on the literature information was collected face to face. Chi-square test was applied to determine whether there is a systematic relationship between the categorical variables in the data analysis. Ethics committee permissions and consent from the participants were obtained. According to the results of the study, the knowledge levels of the individuals were half sufficient, they were worried about themselves and their relatives in terms of getting COVID 19, and their attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic was moderate. As a result, it is necessary to improve the knowledge, attitude and practices of individuals in society to combat the pandemic.