Assessment of educated people awareness level and sources about COVID-19

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Background:</span></strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> Measurement of educated people knowledge about COVID-19 is important to enhance health measures to reduce the rate of infection. Also, knowing the most usable source of data for the public is important point for enhancing the public awareness about the disease. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the awareness and the practices related to COVID-19 among educated people.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Methods</span></strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">: 360 participant received a questionnaire that was divided into several parts aimed at collecting data about participant awareness regarding COVID-19. Data collected using a designed questionnaire; to evaluate the knowledge related to </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">COVID-19</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">. The questionnaire was classified into 6 parts covering all aspects of COVID-19 awareness data. The first part was to evaluate the respondent&rsquo;s general knowledge [6 items]; the second was to evaluate symptoms knowledge [1 item]; the third was to evaluate transmission knowledge [2 items]; the fourth was to evaluate preventive knowledge [4 items]; the fifth was to evaluate treatment knowledge [2 items] and the sixth was indicted the main source of gathering information about the disease [1 item]. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Results</span></strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">: A total of 360 participants participated, 91% of them know the main clinical symptoms of </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">COVID-19</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">. 86% believed that following preventive measures (the etiquette of sneezing, coughing,<span style="color: black;"> personal hygiene</span> or wearing a mask) reduce infection transmission. More than 90 % of participants used the social media for gathering information about the disease, while highly educated (Master and PhD holders) used the published articles as a source for their knowledge, however they represent a few percent of the participant. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Conclusion</span></strong><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">: Overall, the study participants had good knowledge about </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;">COVID-19,</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> however, more efforts are needed to maximize the awareness of the public. Further clinical study is required to evaluate the effect of such good knowledge on decreasing the infection rate. </span></p>