Knowledge, attitude, perception and practices towards covid-19 among rural dwellers in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

Context: The novel Corona virus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world and has brought unprecedented fear and anxiety. Several nations, including Nigeria, instituted strict prevention and control measures to curb the spread of the disease.
Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, perception and practices towards Covid-19 among rural dwellers in Akwa-Ibom state, Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the three senatorial districts in Akwa-Ibom state, using an interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire on the ODK data entry app to obtain data. Data was analysed using SPSS version 22. Statistical significance was set at a P value of 0.05.
Results: A total of 421 respondents participated in this study with 238(56.5%) females and 183(43.5%) males. The mean age was 38.6±16.1 years. Most participants were aware of Covid-19 (97.9%) and the most common sources of information on Covid-19 were the radio (88.4%) and religious organizations (60.4%). Most respondents had good knowledge (62.6%), positive attitude (85.9%), good perception (75.0%) and good practices (77.9%) towards Covid-19. Pearson correlation showed that practice of precautionary measures against Covid-19 was significantly associated with participants’ Knowledge and Perception of Covid-19 (r=0.117, p=0.017 and r=0.201, p<0.0001 respectively) but not with Attitude (p=0.136).
Conclusion: The results revealed that there was good knowledge, attitude, perception and practices towards Covid-19 among the study population. Practice of preventive measures was seen to be weakly correlated to knowledge and perception.