Objective: This study aimed to explore the awareness, attitudes, and practices of the general Pakistani population to COVID-19.
Methods: From June 13, 2020, until June 30, 2020, a cross-sectional online KAP survey was conducted among the Pakistani public. For data collection, a validated self-administered questionnaire was used. The survey instrument consisted of six demographic characteristics, 14 items on knowledge, four on attitudes, and six items on practices, modified from a previously published questionnaire on COVID-19.
Results: The present study included 2,307 participants, 58.3% males and 41.7% of females. The majority (86.7%) sought information from social media (SM) and television, 95% had good practices, 89.9% had positive attitudes, and two-thirds (67.4%) of the respondents had adequate knowledge. The students and people from younger age groups had more positive attitudes compared with others. Highly educated w with other groups (p < 0.001). In logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio indicated that the private job was negatively associated, and high monthly income was positively associated with adequate knowledge (OR = 0.595). Old age was the predictor of negative attitude, and high school degrees and master's degrees were associated with good practice scores.
Conclusion: The Pakistani general population has an overall positive attitude and proactive practices against COVID-19, but their knowledge is inadequate. The most important source of information was SM, followed by television. These are playing a crucial role in educating the Pakistani public.
Introduction
The modern name for the coronavirus is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1). The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been recognized as the root cause of this epidemic of respiratory problems in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, beginning in December 2019 (2). The current COVID-19 epidemic has disseminated very rapidly by January 31, 2020, and propagated to 19 countries with 11,791 diagnosed cases, including 213 deaths due to the virus (2), and by February 15, 2020, the virus had outstretched in almost 26 countries leading to 51,857 diagnosed cases and 1,669 deaths, with nearly all deaths occurring in China (3). This disease spread worldwide in just a few months and became a global pandemic (4). In reaction to these severe concomitances, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic on January 30, 2020 and ordered combined efforts of all countries to prevent the rapid spread of COVID-19 (3). WHO confirmed that several cases with pneumonia of unknown origin were associated with a local Huanan South China seafood market in Wuhan in December 2019. Still, no specific animal association was declared (2, 5). In China, 19% of cases with COVID-19 developed the severe stage of acute respiratory distress syndrome and coagulation disorders (3). Observed clinical data have shown that the approximate case fatality rate of COVID-19 is 2.4% in China, lower than those of SARS (10%), MERS (35%), and H7N9 (39%) (3).
On February 26, 2020, the first positive case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was identified in Pakistan. To counter the spread effectively, Pakistan's government shut down all educational institutions, religious schools, mosques, and leisure spots in the 2nd week of March 2020 (6). All meetings and services have been postponed, marriage halls closed, and all sporting events have been canceled. In addition, a full lockdown was enforced in the country on March 23, 2020 (6). Yet in Pakistan, 80% of patients with COVID-19 have mild symptoms and recover spontaneously, and patients with co-morbidities are more likely to have a serious infection (7). The most basic prerequisite at this point is to learn more about coronaviruses in order to control this pandemic (7). In a struggle to alleviate the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries have enforced a hard lockdown for public movement control and social distancing (8). The usefulness of these alleviation methods is highly based on the society's collaboration and acquiescence (8). However, a study with Asian healthcare workers and medical students explored that they had inadequate information about COVID-19 but had a positive attitude for preventing and controlling COVID-19 (9, 10). Peoples' KAP toward the pandemic has an integral function in revealing the society's preparedness to receive behavioral change measures from the health ministry (8). Knowledge and attitude are related to the degree of fright, panic, and anxiety, which could further complicate actions to control the pandemic (8). Our study aimed to determine the KAP of the Pakistani people toward COVID-19. Our study results could help policymakers devise a sound policy to control this and future health crises.
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