Awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and practices before the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia

E. Faqihi, A. Altwirki, W. Mijlad, M. Alzarie, F. Alqumaizi, M. Iqbal, A. Alshahrani, F. Alzahrani, M. Alaqidi, M. Alqarni, N. Alotaibi, O. Khojah

Department of Pathology, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. essafaqihi@hotmail.com

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• Infectious Diseases
• Public Health

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 outbreak was first reported in Wuhan City, China in early December 2019. It was declared a pandemic by WHO in March 2020. This study aimed at assessing the knowledge, awareness, and attitudes of the general population in Saudi Arabia towards COVID-19, as well as its adherence to preventive measures and its willingness to take the vaccine.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study involved an online sample of 7,188 participants (from five regions of Saudi Arabia) who completed a self-administered online-based questionnaire. They were recruited from 23 November 2020 to 29 November 2020 based on the nonprobability convenience sampling method. The self-administered questionnaire comprised four main sections: gathering information about participants’ demographics, knowledge and awareness of COVID-19, participants’ practices (hygiene and other) against infection, and vaccine acceptability.

RESULTS: More than half of the study participants were knowledgeable about COVID-19. The mean scores were 10.4 (SD=3.44, range: 0-18 – with high scores indicating better knowledge or awareness) for knowledge and 6.1 (SD=2.26, range: 0-11) for awareness, indicating a need for more educational campaigns to improve the level of knowledge and awareness among the Saudi Arabian population about COVID-19. The mean score for attitude was 5 (SD=1.67, range: 0-8 – from 0=very pessimistic to 8=very optimistic), indicating moderate optimism. As for practices, the mean score was 7.8 (SD=1.57, range: 0-10), indicating good practices to prevent or control infection. Concerning acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine, 63.8% of the participants agreed to take the vaccine if it was proven to be 95% effective.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study can help us designing effective measures against COVID-19 infections. Our results highlight the best practices adopted by the Saudi Arabian population, as well as those areas requiring improvement, including knowledge, attitudes, and practices against this disease.

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