Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 has spread to more than 200 countries and territories. But less is known about the knowledge, protection behavior and anxiety regarding the outbreak among the general population.MethodsA cross-sectional, population-based online survey was conducted in China and abroad from January 28 to February 1, 2020. Socio-demographic information was collected and knowledge scores, practice scores, anxiety scores and perceived risk were calculated. General linear model and binary logistic regression were used to identify possible associations.ResultsWe included 9,764 individuals in this study, and 156 (1.6%) were from Hubei Province. The average knowledge score was 4.7 (standard deviation, 1.0) (scored on a 6-point scale); 96.1% maintained hand hygiene, and 90.3% of participants had varying levels of anxiety. People in Hubei Province were the most anxious, followed by those in Beijing and Shanghai. People who had experienced risk behaviors did not pay more attention to wearing masks and hand hygiene.ConclusionsThe public had high awareness on knowledge of COVID-19 outbreak, and a high proportion of people practiced good hand hygiene behavior. Many people claimed anxiety, especially in heavily affected areas during pandemic, suggesting the importance of closing the gap between risk awareness and good practice and conduct psychological counseling to public and patients.
Highlights
In December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause was linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei, China.[2,3] In the 2 months, the outbreak spread to the rest of the provinces
Study participants and characteristics In total, 10,966 individuals participated in this online survey
Practice, and Anxiety for COVID-19 (A) Sample size and number of cases distributed in China (B) Knowledge scores distribution in different provinces (C) Practice scores distribution in different provinces (D) Anxiety scores distribution in different provinces
Summary
In December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause (named COVID-19 on February 12, 20201) was linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, Hubei, China.[2,3] In the 2 months, the outbreak spread to the rest of the provinces. As of January 28 (when this study started), COVID-19 infection caused 5,974 cases in Mainland China and the number was growing dramatically.[8] As of February 1 (when this study ended), 14,380 cases were reported.[9] Currently COVID-19 has caused a global pandemic, with more than 6 million cases and more than 370,000 deaths reported in 216 countries and territories by the end of May 202010 (See eFigure 1 for detailed timeline). Less is known about the knowledge, protection behavior and anxiety regarding the outbreak among the general population
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