School of Medicine, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism Translational Research Unit, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia; and, African Eye and Public Health Research Initiative, African Vision Research Institute, Discipline of Optometry, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. 2021 Jun 15;13(1):e1-e8. doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v13i1.2795.
As the search for effective treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection continues, the public opinion around the potential use of chloroquine (CQ) in treating COVID-19 remains mixed.
To examine opinion and uptake of CQ for treating COVID-19 in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region.
This study was conducted through an online survey software titled SurveyMonkey.
Anonymous online survey of 1829 SSA countries was conducted during the lockdown period using Facebook, WhatsApp and authors' networks. Opinion and uptake of CQ for COVID-19 treatment were assessed using multivariate analyses.
About 14% of respondents believed that CQ could treat COVID-19 and of which, 3.2% took CQ for COVID-19 treatment. Multivariate analyses revealed that respondents from Central (adjusted odds ratios [aOR]: 2.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43, 4.43) and West Africa (aOR: 1.79, 95% CI 1.15, 2.88) had higher odds of believing that CQ could treat COVID-19. Respondents from East Africa reported higher odds for uptake of CQ for COVID-19 than Central, Western and Southern Africans. Knowledge of the disease and compliance with the public health advice were associated with both belief and uptake of CQ for COVID-19 treatment.
Central and West African respondents were more likely to believe in CQ as a treatment for COVID-19 whilst the uptake of the medication during the pandemic was higher amongst East Africans. Future intervention discouraging the unsupervised use of CQ should target respondents from Central, West and East African regions.
随着对 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）感染的有效治疗方法的持续探索，公众对氯喹（CQ）治疗 COVID-19 的潜在用途的看法仍然存在分歧。
研究撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）地区对 CQ 治疗 COVID-19 的看法和接受程度。
本研究通过 SurveyMonkey 在线调查软件进行。
在封锁期间，通过 Facebook、WhatsApp 和作者网络对 SSA 国家的 1829 人进行匿名在线调查。使用多变量分析评估 CQ 治疗 COVID-19 的看法和接受程度。
约 14%的受访者认为 CQ 可以治疗 COVID-19，其中 3.2%的人曾使用 CQ 治疗 COVID-19。多变量分析显示，来自中非（调整后的优势比 [aOR]：2.54，95%置信区间 [CI]：1.43，4.43）和西非（aOR：1.79，95% CI：1.15，2.88）的受访者更有可能认为 CQ 可以治疗 COVID-19。来自东非的受访者报告称，他们更有可能使用 CQ 治疗 COVID-19，而不是中非、西非和南非。对疾病的了解和对公共卫生建议的遵守与对 CQ 治疗 COVID-19 的看法和接受程度均相关。
来自中非和西非的受访者更有可能相信 CQ 是 COVID-19 的治疗方法，而在大流行期间，东非使用这种药物的人数更高。未来应针对中非、西非和东非地区的受访者采取干预措施，以阻止未经监督使用 CQ。
