Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Covid-19 in Different Universities across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Covid-19

Authors

  • Tahir Usman College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
  • Irfan Khattak College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
  • Mustafa Kamal College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
  • Arsalan Rasheed Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
  • Johar Ali Khushal Khan Khattak University, Karak, Pakistan
  • Naimat Ullah Khan College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
  • Adnan Khan Genome Analysis Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Afairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China ,Genome Analysis Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Afairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
  • Ibrar Muhammad Khan Anhui Provincial Laboratory of Local Livestock and Poultry Genetical Resource Conservation and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China
  • Abdul Samad Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
  • Anwer Hussain Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, Pakistan
  • Tariq Ali Center of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Veterinary Research Institute Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53560/PPASB(60-sp1)812

Keywords:

Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Covid-19, Pandemic, Preventive Strategies

Abstract

There have been 6,566,610 fatalities and 626,337,158 reported cases of COVID-19 worldwide. Pakistan presently has over 1,573,922 confirmed cases and 30,625 deaths. A survey-based study was performed from January to September 2022 among different university communities to find out their KAP level. Data was collected in Google Forms through a questionnaire. The Independent t-test, Multinomial regressions, and Non-parametric Mann-Whitney test were used to assess the level of significance (p-value ≤0.05). 317 out of 605 participants were male (52.5 %), the majority of participants were 15-29 years old (72.7 %), unmarried/divorced (71.6 %), have no children (82.1 %), residing in the urban area (54.9 %) and possess a college/university degree (59.5 %). The majority of participants correctly answered five out of six knowledge questions (M = 4.96, SD = 1.03) and correctly identified the primary symptoms of COVID-19 (94.4 %) along with the proper identification of mode of transmission (95.2 %) while 1.8% wrongly replied and 2.1 % did not reply. A knowledge test revealed the significant frequency of misconception, with nearly half of the respondents (46.3 %) assuming that illness might be contracted by eating or coming into touch with wild animals. Wearing a facial mask is highly practiced (M = 3.59, SD = 0.91), followed by avoiding crowded places (M = 3.44, SD = 0.95) and practicing hand hygiene (M = 3.36, SD = 1.04). Females, the elderly, and the less educated, on the other hand, have less understanding of COVID-19, making them especially susceptible to the pandemic. It is proposed that further awareness might contribute to a favorable attitude and practice.

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Published

2023-01-23

How to Cite

Tahir Usman, Khattak, I., Mustafa Kamal, Arsalan Rasheed, Johar Ali, Naimat Ullah Khan, Adnan Khan, Ibrar Muhammad Khan, Samad, A., Anwer Hussain, & Ali, T. (2023). Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Covid-19 in Different Universities across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Covid-19. Proceedings of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences: B. Life and Environmental Sciences, 60(S), 77–82. https://doi.org/10.53560/PPASB(60-sp1)812