Knowledge Attitude and Practice towards COVID-19 among the People of South Omo Zone Ethiopia

Abstract Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated “COVID- 19”) is an emerging respiratory disease that is caused by a novel coronavirus and was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The main clinical symptoms of the virus include fever, dry cough, fatigue, myalgia, and dyspnea. Ethiopia is one of African countries that confirmed the virus and working on the condition. This study was aimed to investigate Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards COVID-19 among the people of South Omo Zone and specifically, the study was aimed to find out the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice score reported by respondents related to COVID-19. Methodology: this study used cross sectional survey method to identify factors that determine Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards COVID-19 and to compare Knowledge scores of different social and demographic groups. A total of 400 respondents were taken from two woreds of the Zone namely Hammer and Nyangatom woreda by using multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and econometric model were used to analyze data. Descriptive statistics include average, t-test and chi-square test were used end binary logit model was used to identify the factors that determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of respondents towards COVID-19. Result: It was found that majority of the respondent have no knowledge, have no optimistic attitude and have no safe practice towards COVID-19. From the total sampled respondents, 53.5% have good knowledge, 55.75% have optimistic attitude and 44.25% respondents have safe practice towards COVID-19. Demographic characteristics, socio-economic factors and infrastructure barriers were found determining knowledge, attitude and practice of the respondents.Conclusion: most of the respondents in the study area have no knowledge towards COVID-19, have no optimistic attitude towards the final success in controlling the virus and they have no safe practice concerning the prevention methods of COVID-19. Demographic characteristics of the respondents and socio-economic factors are the most common factors which determined the knowledge, attitude and practice of the respondents towards COVID-19. From the economic status and having access to information perspective, those respondents that have high income and access to information have knowledge, optimistic attitude and good practice towards COVID-19 than those respondents that have low income and have no access to information. Health education programs, by targeting the lower knowledge individuals regarding COVID19, are essential for creating awareness, building positive attitude and maintain safe practices, supporting the low income groups could help the respondents to practice the prevention methods.