Abstract

Back ground: The first case of COVID 19 in Ethiopia Addis Ababa was confirmed on March 13, 2020. A case was a foreigner who had a history of travel from Japan to Africa. Currently the diseases spread into almost all administrative regions of Ethiopia by increasing its magnitude above 40,000 cases. COVID -19 is not only a health problem but also causes to the socio-economic crisis.

Objective: This study was aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 pandemic among Mizan-Aman town residents, southwest Ethiopia, 2020.

Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was carried out from July 7– 27/2020. Simple Random sampling technique was employed to select the respondents from the study frame work. An interviewing questionnaire was adapted from related articles. To ensure the quality of investigation results collected data first entered in to EpiData version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the participants’ Socio demographic characteristics and their knowledge, Attitude and Practice status towards COVD-19 Pandemic. Logistic regression was executed to assess the predictors of leading preventive methods.

Result: Among 422 selected residents 409 participated in the study with a response rate of (96.9%). About half 206 (50.4%) of respondents had correct knowledge about COVID-19. Regarding Attitude assessment, less than half 190(46.5%) participants hold optimistic attitudes   and similarly, about 110(26.9%) participants had appropriate practice about COVID-19 mitigation. In multiple logistic regression analyses, female respondents worn masks less frequently than male participants (OR: 2.19, 95%, CI, (1.32-3.65, P<0.002)). Participants who correctly respond to the importance of awaking children and young adults were more likely practicing Corona virus transmission prevention (OR: 2.91 ,95% ,CI, (1.39, 6.10 ,P<0.004)). Respondents those knowing COVID-19 virus spreads via respiratory droplets to others were properly practicing prevention methods (OR: 2.38   , 95% CI (1.03-5.47, P< 0.041)).

Conclusion: Findings suggested that peoples had relatively good knowledge but still majority did not had optimistic attitude and appropriate COVD 19 prevention practices. Therefore remarkable attention should be given to these problems and awareness approach shall be revised.

Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, COVID-19