A Cross-cultural Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on COVID-19 among People of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey

Öz

Objectives: The success or failure of global and national efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic depends on public knowledge, attitude, and practice. Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey are among the most affected countries in which they have approximately similar socio-cultural structures. This is an online questionnaire-based cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice levels toward the COVID-19 pandemic among the adult population of these nationalities. Methods: A total of 2736 individuals including 1080 from Turkey, 1025 from Iran, and 631 from Afghanistan responded to the questionnaire. The data was collected online through a survey using the Google form and Porsall platforms. In addition to demographic characteristics, the questionnaire consists of three main sections including items of awareness, attitude, and practice of the participants about COVID-19 using four Likert scale questions. Descriptive statistics were used to estimates the proportions of items. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent T-test was used to analyze the difference between KAP scores among sociodemographic variables and between countries. All analyses were done with the 95% confidence level and the significant level was defined as p-value < 0.05. Results: Overall KAP scores were over 3 out of 4 among Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan respectively. Despite no differences between subpopulations in each country, the overall attitude and practice score of the Afghan population was significantly lower than Turkish and Iranian populations (P-value<0.05). Conclusion: In spite of the high level of knowledge, positive attitude, and acceptable practice in all populations understudy, a low-risk perception in a considerable part of the population was discerned. J Microbiol Infect Dis 2021; 11(2):58-65.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Covid-19
• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Practice

Kaynakça

1. 1-Husseini AA, Kamil AA. Estimating COVID-19 Dynamics in Afghanistan. Erciyes Med J 2020; 42(4): 468 - 473. DOI: 10.14744/etd.2020.80270
2. 2- Husseini AA, Kamil AA, Aloudal MR. COVID-19 Disease and Interferon-γ: Has it a Protective Impact on Mortality? Erciyes Med J 2020; 43(2): 116-121. DOI: 10.14744/etd.2020.40326
3. 3- The Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at JHU, JHU CSSE COVID-19 Dashboard. Available at 14.09.2020
4. 4- Chirwa GC. Who knows more, and why? Explaining socioeconomic-related inequality in knowledge about HIV in Malawi. Sci African 2020; 7:e00213 DOI: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2019.e00213
5. 5- Chirwa GC, Sithole L, and Jamu E, Socio-economic Inequality in Comprehensive Knowledge about HIV in Malawi. Malawi Med J 2019; 31(2): 104–111. DOI: 10.4314/mmj.v31i2.1
6. 6- Podder D, Paul B, Dasgupta A, Bandyopadhyay L, Pal A, Roy S. Community perception and risk reduction practices toward malaria and dengue: a mixed-method study in slums of Chetla, Kolkata. Ind J Public Health 2019; 63:178. DOI: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_321_19
7. 7- Erbas M, Dost B. (2020) Evaluation of knowledge and attitudes among intensive care physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey. Sao Paulo Med J. 2020; S1516-31802020005014103. DOI:10.1590/1516-3180.2020.02545062020
8. 8- Kara E, Demirkan K, Ünal S. Knowledge and Attitudes Among Hospital Pharmacists About COVID-19. Turk J Pharm Sci 2020; 17(3):242-248.

9. 9- Duruk G, Gümüşboğa ZŞ, Çolak C. Investigation of Turkish dentists' clinical attitudes and behaviors towards the COVID-19 pandemic: a survey study. Braz Oral Res 2020; 34: e054. DOI:10.1590/1807-3107bor-2020.vol34.0054
10. 10- Dost B, Koksal E, Terzi Ö, Bilgin S, Ustun YB, Arslan HN. Attitudes of Anesthesiology Specialists and Residents toward Patients Infected with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19): A National Survey Study. Surg Infect (Larchmt) 2020; 21(4):350-356. DOI:10.1089/sur.2020.097
11. 11- Yakar B , Kaygusuz TÖ , Pirinçci E , Önalan E, Ertekin YH, Knowledge, attitude and anxiety of medical students about the current COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey. Fam Pract Palliat Care 2020; 5(2):36-44 DOI: 10.22391/fppc.737469
12. 12- Çolakoğlu MK, Özgün YM, Pişkin E, Bostancı EB, Özmen MM. The attitude of Turkish general surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of “general surgery COVID-19 pandemic attitude survey”. Turk J Surg 2020; 36 (2): 137-146 DOI: 10.5578/turkjsurg.4809
13. 13-Taghrir MH, Borazjani R, Shiraly R. COVID-19 and Iranian Medical Students; A Survey on Their Related-Knowledge, Preventive Behaviors and Risk Perception. Arch Iran Med 2020; 23(4):249-254. DOI:10.34172/aim.2020.06
14. 14- Honarvar B, Lankarani KB, Kharmandar A, et al. Knowledge, attitudes, risk perceptions, and practices of adults toward COVID-19: a population and field-based study from Iran. Int J Public Health 2020; 65(6):731-739. DOI: 10.1007/s00038-020-01406-2
15. 15- Kakemam E, Ghoddoosi Nejad J, et al. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices among the general population during COVID-19 outbreak in Iran: A national cross-sectional survey. 2020, Medrxiv, preprints DOI:10.1101/2020.06.10.20127258
16. 16- Nemat A, Raufi N, Sediqi MF, Rasib AR, Asady A. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Medical Students Regarding COVID-19 in Afghanistan: A Cross-Sectional Study. Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2021; 14:1491-1497.
17. 17- Bhagavathula AS, Raghavan VR, Ahmadi A, Srirag D, Chattu VK, Frontline Healthcare Workers’ Knowledge, Perception and Risk Prevention Practices Regarding COVID-19 in Afghanistan: A Cross-Sectional Study. Med. Sci. 2021, 9, 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/ medsci9010002
18. 18- Orfan SN and Elmyar AH. Public knowledge, practice and attitudes towards COVID-19 in Afghanistan. Public Health of Indonesia: 6(4), 104-115
19. 19- IOM UN migration, COVID-19 Rapid Response, Mobile Clinics in Afghanistan Receive New Funding Support URL: https://www.iom.int/news/covid-19-rapid-response-mobile-clinics-afghanistan-receive-new-funding-support access 08.06.2021
20. 20- Mousavi SH, Delshad MH, Acuti Martellucci C, et al. Community behavioral and perceived responses in the COVID-19 outbreak in Afghanistan: A crosssectional study. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/ dmp.2021.135.
21. 21- Jahangiry L, Bakhtari F, Sohrabi Z, Reihani P, Samei S, Ponnet K and Montazeri A. Risk perception related to COVID-19 among the Iranian general population: an application of the extended parallel process model. BMC Public Health (2020) 20:1571 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09681-7
22. 22- Cihan E, Pirinççi CŞ, Gerçek H, Ünüvar BS, Demirdel E. The Knowledge Levels, Preventive Behavior and Risk Perception On COVID-19 of the Healthcare Students In Turkey. SDÜ Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi 2020; 11(3):342-347. Doi: 10.22312/sdusbed.765212
23. 23- Ferrer R and Klein WM, Risk perceptions and health behavior, Curr Opin Psychol 2015; 5: 85–89. DOI:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.03.012
24. 24- Liu L, Liu YP, Wang J, An LW, Jiao JM. Use of a knowledge-attitude-behaviour education programme for Chinese adults undergoing maintenance haemodialysis: Randomized controlled trial. J Int Med Res 2016; 44(3): 557-568. DOI: 10.1177/0300060515604980
25. 25- Heinzen T and Goodfriend W, Social psychology, 1st Edition ed., SAGE Publications, Inc; 2017: 632
26. 26- Simons HW, Persuasion: understanding, practice, and analysis, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1976: 382
27. 27- Dainton M, "Explaining Theories of Persuasion," in Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition ed., SAGE Publications, Inc, 2010: 103-131.