Hossain Mohammad Bellal, Alam Md Zakiul, Islam Md Syful, Sultan Shafayat, Faysal Md Mahir, Rima Sharmin, Hossain Md Anwer, Mahmood Maliha Mubashirah, Kashfi Shaima Shohuda, Mamun Abdullah Al, Monia Hossna Tasmia, Shoma Sharmin Sultana
Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Department of Population Science, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Bangladesh.
Heliyon. 2020 Dec;6(12):e05799. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05799. Epub 2020 Dec 21.
The Government of Bangladesh has adopted several non-therapeutic measures to tackle the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. However, the curve of COVID-19 positive cases has not significantly flattened yet, as the adoption of preventive measures by the general population is predominantly a behavioral phenomenon that is often influenced by people's knowledge and attitudes. This study aimed to assess the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 and their interrelationships among the population of Bangladesh aged 18 years and above. This study adopted a web-based cross-sectional survey design and collected data from 1056 respondents using the online platform Google Form. We employed the independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's product-moment correlation, and Spearman rank-order correlation to produce the bivariate level statistics. We also run multiple linear and logistic regression models to identify the factors affecting knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19. The respondents had an average knowledge score of 17.29 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 3.30). The average score for attitude scale toward COVID-19 was 13.6 (SD = 3.7). The respondents had excellent preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 (mean 7.7, SD = 0.72). However, this study found that knowledge and attitudes did not matter for preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19. Instead, education appeared as a sole predictor for preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19; that means preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 was lower among the less educated respondents. This study suggests increasing education as a long-term strategy and taking immediate action to increase knowledge and decrease negative attitudes toward COVID-19 through targeted health education initiatives as a short-term strategy.
孟加拉国政府已采取多项非治疗性措施来应对新冠病毒疫情。然而，新冠病毒阳性病例曲线尚未明显趋缓，因为普通民众采取预防措施主要是一种行为现象，往往受人们的知识和态度影响。本研究旨在评估孟加拉国18岁及以上人群对新冠病毒的知识水平、态度和预防行为实践及其相互关系。本研究采用基于网络的横断面调查设计，通过在线平台谷歌表单从1056名受访者收集数据。我们采用独立样本t检验、单因素方差分析、皮尔逊积矩相关和斯皮尔曼等级相关来生成双变量水平统计数据。我们还运行了多元线性和逻辑回归模型，以确定影响对新冠病毒的知识、态度和预防行为实践的因素。受访者的平均知识得分为17.29（标准差（SD）=3.30）。对新冠病毒态度量表的平均得分为13.6（SD=3.7）。受访者对新冠病毒有良好的预防行为实践（均值7.7，SD=0.72）。然而，本研究发现，知识和态度对新冠病毒预防行为实践并无影响。相反，教育似乎是新冠病毒预防行为实践的唯一预测因素；这意味着受教育程度较低的受访者对新冠病毒的预防行为实践较少。本研究建议将增加教育作为长期战略，并立即采取行动，通过有针对性的健康教育举措增加知识并减少对新冠病毒的负面态度，作为短期战略。
