College of Medicine and Health Science, Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia.
Curr Med Res Opin. 2020 Dec;36(12):1955-1960. doi: 10.1080/03007995.2020.1835854. Epub 2020 Oct 23.
COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic in March 2020. After confirming the first case, the Ethiopian government has been working a lot to prevent transmission. Most of the reported cases were identified from traveling abroad. Effective prevention and control practices depend on awareness and compliance among the population at all levels. The main objective of this study is to determine the knowledge level and its association with sources of information towards COVID-19 and its prevention techniques in the Gedeo Zone of Southern Ethiopia.
There are 10 knowledge questions regarding COVID-19 and its prevention techniques. The maximum knowledge score for each question was 1 and the minimum 0, where 0 was scored for incorrect and 1 for correct answers. The overall knowledge score ranges from 0 to 10, where a score of 0-5 as poor knowledge and a score from 6-10 as good knowledge. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. The adjusted odds ratio with their 95% CI was used to show the strength of association. Value < .05 was used to declare a statistically significant association.
Among 1170 study participants, 58.1% of the study participants were male. Protestant constitutes 50.6% of the study participants in religion. Regarding knowledge level, 60.5% have good knowledge about COVID-19 and its prevention techniques. Concerning sources of information about COVID-19 and its prevention; internet, family/peer, religious and health workers contributes less <20% whereas telecommunication and television/Radio contributes the largest 56.1% and 85.8% as a source of information respectively. Internet as a source of information AOR: 1.99 (CI: 1.05-3.78, = .034), information from health worker AOR: 2.324 (CI: 1.228-4.397, = .010) and information from television or radio AOR: 2.737 (CI: 1.471-5.092, = .001) has been significantly associated with good knowledge with value < .05.
Sources of information had a significant association on the level of knowledge. Residents who had internet, television/radio, and health workers as their information sources had better knowledge regarding COVID-19 and its prevention. Based on this, we recommend increasing internet access, television and radio service, and public health education by trained health workers for effective approaches to fight COVID-19.
2020 年 3 月，COVID-19 被宣布为大流行。在确认首例病例后，埃塞俄比亚政府一直致力于预防传播。大多数报告的病例都是在国外旅行时发现的。有效的预防和控制措施取决于各级民众的意识和遵守情况。本研究的主要目的是确定知识水平及其与 COVID-19 及其预防技术的信息来源之间的关联，以及在埃塞俄比亚南部的盖多地区。
有 10 个关于 COVID-19 及其预防技术的知识问题。每个问题的最高知识得分为 1 分，最低得分为 0 分，其中 0 分为错误答案，1 分为正确答案。整体知识得分范围为 0 至 10 分，0-5 分为知识水平差，6-10 分为知识水平好。采用双变量和多变量二项逻辑回归来确定因变量和自变量之间的关联。使用调整后的比值比及其 95%CI 来表示关联的强度。值<0.05 用于表示具有统计学意义的关联。
在 1170 名研究参与者中，58.1%的研究参与者为男性。新教在研究参与者中占 50.6%。关于知识水平，60.5%的人对 COVID-19 及其预防技术有良好的了解。关于 COVID-19 及其预防的信息来源；互联网、家庭/同伴、宗教和卫生工作者的贡献<20%，而电信和电视/广播的贡献最大，分别为 56.1%和 85.8%。作为信息来源的互联网 AOR：1.99（CI：1.05-3.78，=0.034）、来自卫生工作者的信息 AOR：2.324（CI：1.228-4.397，=0.010）和来自电视或广播的信息 AOR：2.737（CI：1.471-5.092，=0.001）与良好的知识有显著关联，值<0.05。
信息来源与知识水平有显著关联。拥有互联网、电视/广播和卫生工作者作为信息来源的居民对 COVID-19 及其预防有更好的了解。基于这一点，我们建议增加互联网接入、电视和广播服务，并由经过培训的卫生工作者进行公共卫生教育，以采取有效措施抗击 COVID-19。
