Abstract
<i>Background</i>: New virus infections outbreaks among people are always a public health problem. For the COVID-19, it may have physical, psychological, and social consequences that affect on individuals. One of these psychological consequences is fear. Older adults, especially with chronic health conditions are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. So, individuals must have good COVID-19 knowledge and preventive practices to combat this fear and prevent the spread of infection. <i>Aim</i>: Determine the relationship between knowledge, preventive practices, and fear from COVID-19 among middle aged and older adults: during the novel coronavirus outbreak. <i>Design</i>: A descriptive cross-sectional correlational research design was used in this study. <i>Setting</i>: The study was carried out at Temai Elamdid health insurance outpatient clinics that affiliated to the Egyptian Ministry of Health. <i>Subjects</i>: A convenience sample of 185 patients attending the previous study setting. Tools: Four tools were used in this study; demographic and clinical data structured interview schedule, COVID-19 knowledge structured interview schedule, COVID-19 preventive practices structured interview schedule and fear from COVID-19 scale. <i>Results</i>: It was noticed that more than two fifth of middle aged adults and more than one third of older adults had satisfactory COVID-19 preventive practices, Furthermore, more than one third of middle aged adults and one third of older adults had good COVID-19 knowledge with statistically significant difference was found between two groups. Also, Significant relation was found between both COVID-19 knowledge and preventive practices and fear from COVID-19 among the study subjects (P=0.000). In the same direction, there was statistically significant difference between middle aged adults and older adults regarding COVID-19 knowledge and preventive practices and higher level of COVID-19 fear (P=0.000). <i>Conclusion</i>: Older adults had a significant lower score of COVID-19 knowledge and preventive practices and higher level of COVID-19 fear than middle aged adults as strong negative correlation between fear from COVID-19 and either COVID-19 knowledge & preventive practices was found. <i>Recommendations</i>: Educational programs should be developed and implemented by nurses in different care settings to increase their awareness about COVID-19.
Highlights
Coronaviruses are a large family of enveloped RNA viruses that mostly infect birds and mammals, with humans being vulnerable to infection and transmission of the virus [51]
As regard to the source of COVID-19 knowledge among middle aged and older adults, the present study showed that social media was considered the most common source of COVID-19 knowledge among both groups, this result is in accordance with Abdelhafiz et al [1] who found that the most commonly stated sources of COVID-19 knowledge were social media
Regarding fear from COVID-19, the current study showed that there was a statistically significant difference was found between middle aged group and older adults group as older adults had a higher level of fear than middle aged
Summary
Coronaviruses are a large family of enveloped RNA viruses that mostly infect birds and mammals, with humans being vulnerable to infection and transmission of the virus [51]. The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging respiratory disease that first reported in Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China in the late December 2019 when patients stated that they having viral pneumonia resulted from an unknown microbial pathogen. Individuals must have good COVID-19 knowledge and preventive practices to combat this fear and prevent the spread of infection Aim: Determine the relationship between knowledge, preventive practices, and fear from COVID-19 among middle aged and older adults: during the novel coronavirus outbreak. There was statistically significant difference between middle aged adults and older adults regarding COVID-19 knowledge and preventive practices and higher level of COVID-19 fear (P=0.000). Recommendations: Educational programs should be developed and implemented by nurses in different care settings to increase their awareness about COVID-19
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