Publication:

Exploring knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 amongst the residents in South Africa: a quick online survey

Background The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spread rapidly inviting unprecedented measures globally. Citizen’s adherence to jurisdiction is affected by their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards the disease.

Methods A cross-sectional survey study among a convenient sample of the general public aged 18 years or more and resident in South Africa was conducted through a self-designed online KAP survey questionnaire during the first few weeks of the South African lockdown to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices about COVID-19. A p value of <0.05 (two tailed) was taken to be statistically significant.

Results A total of 885 respondents completed the survey, majority of which were females who identified COVID-19 as a challenge to health and society and agreed with the strategy of lockdown for initial control of the spreading epidemic. In spite of the high knowledge scores of the population 31% of the respondents did not choose to wear a mask while leaving home.  Also, a large number of respondents believed that early symptomatic treatment can prove useful to manage the infection. A statistically significant p value (<0.05) was obtained for the study variables in the statistical analysis, which showed that high knowledge scores were found to be associated with gender, categories of annual income and ethnicity.

Conclusions This survey shows that South African residents of a relatively high level of socioeconomic status, in particular women, have substantial knowledge, positive attitudes, but need to improve practices towards COVID-19 during the rapid rise phase of the COVID-19 outbreak.