LEVEL OF COMMUNITY READINESS AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS FOR THE PREVENTION OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC AMONG RESIDENTS OF AWI ZONE, NORTHWEST ETHIOPIA, 2020

Alex Yeshaneh, Daniel Adane, Biresaw Wassihun

Email: alexyeshaneh7@gmail.com Phone: +251927069249

Introduction: Novel coronavirus 19 is a contagious disease that affects all most all countries of the world and puts the world in great challenge. This global concern affects more than 95 million individuals, and more than 2 million peoples have died. Even though, there is a limited testing capacity in Africa the number of cases and deaths is progressively increased. This catastrophic case has a great impact in Africa unless the preventive measures are effectively undertaken. In Ethiopia, since the first case detected on March 13, the number of COVID-19 cases and death are increasing over time. This study was aimed to assess the level of community readiness for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and its associated challenges among residents of Awi Zone, Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 1524 study participants from July 28 to August 27, 2020. A structured and pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the information. The collected data were entered into EPI data 4.6 version and analyzed using SPSS version 24. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were carried out to identify factors associated with the level of community readiness. P-value < 0.05 was deemed to declare statistical significance.

Result: A total of 1423 participants have participated in the study.The prevalence of knowledge, attitude, perception, and practice towards COVID-19 were found to be 76.6%, 68.4%, 68.5 %, and 29% respectively. Only 20.2% of the study participants were ready on Covid-19 preventive measures. Married, College and above in education and government employee were associated with good knowledge. The age group of 30-49 years, Muslim, Agew ethnicity, a student and knowledge were strongly associated with the positive attitude towards COVID-19. Ethnicity, the secondary level of education, and government employee were some of the factors associated with good perception towards Covid-19. Similarly; female, married, primary level of education, and good knowledge were significantly associated with practice towards covid-19. Lastly variables like, female, married respondents, urban residents, Muslim religion followers, and read and write in educational status were some of the variables significantly associated with the level of community readiness towards Covid-19.

Conclusion: In this study, most of the study participants had good knowledge, a favorable attitude, and good perception. Even though, there is good knowledge, positive attitude, and good perception; a practice on the covid-19 preventive measure was poor. In this study, Sex, marital status, religion, and educational status were significantly associated with the level of community readiness for covid-19 prevention. Health education programs aimed at mobilizing and improving COVID-19 related level of community readiness especially practice are urgently needed. Awareness creation programs on more targeted groups such as men, unmarried and those with low educational level and religious leaders should be teaching the believers by interacting with faith and science on the means of preventing the pandemic.

Keywords:   Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, perception,