The Effect of Online Seminar on Knowledge in Increasing Immunity to Face COVID-19 and Perception Toward New Normal Among General Public

Abstract

Since March 2020, WHO has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. The government hasimplemented a new normal, which is an order for adapting to new habits with the aimthat people can continue to live productively by changing their lifestyle to prevent thetransmission of COVID-19. One of the prevention and management measures forCOVID-19 is to increase immunity. Online seminars are one of the most importanthealth promotion methods and can be done in the new normal era in order to increasepublic health knowledge. This study aimed to determine the effect of online seminarson the knowledge and perceptions of the general public. This study used a quasiexperimental pre and post test design. The sample in this study were all participantswho attended online seminars and filled out the pretest and posttest questionnaires.Univariate data analysis showed that the majority of respondents had a mean age of29.41 years, mostly women (58.8%), and unemployed (44.7%). Most of therespondents had a good level of initial knowledge about increasing immunity in facingCOVID-19 (68.4%) and a sufficient level of perception of the new normal (49.1%)before attending online seminars. The bivariate data analysis showed that there wasa significant increase in knowledge about increasing immunity in facing COVID-19 inthe new normal before and after attending an online seminar with a p value = 0.000(p value <0.05). Online seminars are the right way to promote health in increasingknowledge about immunity to face COVID-19 and perceptions toward the new normalamong the general public.