Awareness and Knowledge about Monkeypox Disease among General Adult Population in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Assessment of awareness and knowledge of the general population regarding Monkeypox is rarely investigated on a global level. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a lack of knowledge about monkeypox as one of the main challenges facing authorities in implementing effective preventive strategies. This study aims to assess the awareness and knowledge of the general adult population about Monkeypox disease. Subjects and Methods: An online population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, among a snowball sample of adult persons (>18 years old). A self-administered online Arabic and English questionnaires was utilized in this study. It consists of three main parts: sociodemographic characteristics of the patients, perception towards Monkeypox disease and assessment of the knowledge about Monkeypox disease through 23 multiple-choice questions with “Yes”, “No” and “don’t know” responses. Results: A total of 387 adults were included in the study. Females represented 72.6% of them. Almost two-thirds (63.8%) aged between 26 and 45 years. More than half (55.6%) of the participants believed that monkeypox will affect social and economic life like the COVID-19 pandemic while 30.7% considered Monkeypox as a conspiracy or bioterrorism. Overall, almost half (50.4%) of the participants expressed excellent level of knowledge, whereas only 4.4% had poor level of knowledge. The highest level of excellent knowledge about Monkeypox disease was observed among participants in the age group 26–45 years (55.1%), whereas the lowest was observed among those in the age group 46–60 years (39.7%), P = 0.001. More educated participants (university/postgraduates) were more knowledgeable about Monkeypox disease as 53.5% of them had excellent level of knowledge compared to 33.3% of those below secondary school educational level, P = 0.047. Conclusion: The knowledge of the general population about Monkeypox is acceptable. However, defective knowledge was observed regarding the fact that Monkeypox is not a new infection that appeared in the year 2022 as well as about the availability of a monkeypox vaccine in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, it is recommended to organize educational activities about the disease for general population targeted mainly lower educated and elderly subjects.