Knowledge, Practice and Associated Factors toward COVID-19 Prevention among Rural Communities in Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: COVID-19 is the newly emerged viral disease that becomes the global burden, and attacks both developed and developing countries. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, practice, and related factors toward COVID-19 among rural communities in Southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: Community based cross-sectional study was conducted from May 10 to July 25, 2020, that included a total of 768 randomly selected participants. Data were collected through face-to-face interview using structured questionaire. Data were entered into Epi-data version 4.4 and exported into SPSS version 20 and analyzed using chi-square, binary logistic, and multivariable logistic regression to identify significant factors with p-value ≤ 0.05 on knowledge and prevention practice toward COVID-19. RESULTS:A total of 720 participants were completed the questionnaires. The mean knowledge and practice scores were 4.812 (44%) and 1.829 (37%), respectively. More than half of the participants, 398 (55.3%) and 482 (66.9%) had good knowledge and practice to prevent COVID-19, respectively. Good prevention practice (AOR=2.04, 95% CI: (1.50, 2.83) with p0.000, those family size greater than five (AOR=1.61, 95% CI: (1.11, 2.33) with p0.012 were significantly associated with good knoweledge of COVID-19. Similarly, married participants (AOR=1.81, 95% CI: (1.22, 2.69) p=0.003, secondary education (AOR=1.78, 95% CI: (1.19, 2.98) p=0.028, being student (AOR=2.27,95% CI:(1.19,4.36) p=0.014, good knowledge (AOR=2.04, 95% CI: (1.47, 2.83) p=0.000, and family size 5 (AOR=0.577, 95% CI: (0.388, 0.824) p=0.003 were significantly associated with good preventive practice toward COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS:More than half of the participants had good knowledge and preventive practice toward COVID-19 pandemic, eventhough it is not enough to handle the rapid spread of the virus. The government and non-governmental organizations should give attention to the rural communities to promote and create awareness and preventive practices to combat the transmission of COVID-19 pandemic. KEYWORDS: COVID-19, Knowledge, Practice, Rural Community, Ethiopia.