Factors Influencing Knowledge of COVID-19 Prevention in Eastern Ethiopia

Merga Dheresa, Zachary J. Madewell, Jonathan A. Muir, Tamirat Getachew, Gamachis Daraje, Gezahegn Mengesha, Cynthia G. Whitney, Nega Assefa and Solveig A. Cunningham

SAGE Open, 2024, vol. 14, issue 3, 21582440241273871

Abstract: This study examined coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention knowledge among community residents in Eastern Ethiopia to support public health interventions and vaccination coverage. A cross-sectional survey in August-September 2021 recruited 880 participants from households in a Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in Harari and Oromia, Ethiopia. Participants were randomly selected and interviewed in person using tablets and a standardized questionnaire. Principal components analysis was used to create a score representing COVID-19 prevention knowledge. Quasi-Poisson regression was used to examine associations between demographic characteristics and COVID-19 prevention knowledge. The survey also assessed awareness of community/government COVID-19 prevention measures and healthcare services for under-5 children and pregnant women. The most cited COVID-19 prevention measures were handwashing with soap (91.5%) and wearing facemasks (89.2%); least mentioned were avoiding travel (22.2%) and wearing medical gloves (20.3%). Commonly recognized community/government measures included school closures (77.0%), avoiding gatherings (75.2%), and staying home (62.3%). Adjusted analyses demonstrated higher COVID-19 prevention knowledge among rural participants, those aged ≥65 years (reference:

Keywords: community; household; SARS-CoV-2; sub-Saharan Africa; health education; health communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440241273871 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:3:p:21582440241273871

DOI: 10.1177/21582440241273871

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().