Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
University of Okara, Punjab, Pakistan.
Front Public Health. 2021 Nov 12;9:779090. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.779090. eCollection 2021.
Medical preparedness and community education are the most valuable preventive tools for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to assess the role of media public health awareness campaigns on the knowledge of the general population about COVID-19 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. A quantitative study using a pre-post design among 384 respondents was conducted. A structured questionnaire was administered to the participants twice: The first response ( ) from participants was filled in during the 1st week in February 2020 before any confirmed cases were reported in the country, and the second response ( ) was completed 1 month after the first case detection in Pakistan (March 2020). Media health awareness campaigns were launched just after the detection of the first case in Pakistan. Exposure to the media and knowledge relating to COVID-19 increased over time. Whereas, only a quarter of respondents judged the isolation of suspected cases in quarantine to be important to prevent the spread of infection in society at , more than half did so at . Socio-demographic characteristics were not significantly associated with knowledge (gains). However, more frequent use of electronic media is associated with greater knowledge gains from to . The findings of this study provide evidence that awareness and knowledge related to COVID-19 symptoms and preventive measures increased significantly over time. The increased frequency of following the media indicates that health awareness campaigns are important for enhancing the knowledge of the general public regarding COVID-19.
医疗准备和社区教育是应对 COVID-19 大流行最有价值的预防工具。本研究旨在评估媒体公共卫生意识运动在巴基斯坦拉瓦尔品第普通民众对 COVID-19 认识中的作用。在 384 名受访者中进行了一项采用前后设计的定量研究。向参与者两次发放了一份结构化问卷：第一次（ ）是在该国报告首例确诊病例之前的 2020 年 2 月第一周填写的，第二次（ ）是在巴基斯坦首例病例检出一个月后（2020 年 3 月）填写的。媒体卫生意识运动是在巴基斯坦首例病例检出后立即发起的。随着时间的推移，接触媒体和与 COVID-19 相关的知识不断增加。然而，只有四分之一的受访者在 时认为隔离疑似病例进行检疫对防止感染在社会中传播很重要，而在 时则有超过一半的人认为这很重要。社会人口统计学特征与知识（收益）没有显著相关性。然而，从 到 ，更频繁地使用电子媒体与知识收益的增加呈正相关。本研究结果提供了证据，表明与 COVID-19 症状和预防措施相关的意识和知识随着时间的推移显著增加。媒体关注度的增加表明，卫生意识运动对于提高公众对 COVID-19 的认识非常重要。
