Knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19, prevalence of pre-existing conditions and access to essential resources in Somali IDP camps: a cross-sectional study
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Abstract
This study examined knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19, prevalence of pre-existing conditions and access to essential resources among residents of internally displaced person (IDP) camps in Somalia, where overcrowded settlements with weakened infrastructure, inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities, and limited access to health services make this vulnerable population particularly susceptible to a COVID-19 outbreak.
Design
A descriptive, cross-sectional survey.
Setting
Twelve IDP camps across six areas of the Lower Shabelle region in Somalia.
Participants
401 adult Somali IDP camp residents.
Results
The majority of participants were female (86%) and had received no formal education (89%). While 58% reported being in ‘good’ health, half of the participants reported having one or more pre-existing conditions. Though 77% of respondents reported taking at least one COVID-19 preventative public health measure, respondents reported a lack of access to adequate sanitation, an inability to practice social distancing and nearly universal inability to receive a COVID-19 screening exam. Questions assessing knowledge surrounding COVID-19 prevention and treatment yielded answers of ‘I don’t know’ for roughly 50% of responses. The majority of participants were not familiar with basic information about the virus or confident that they could receive medical services if infected. 185 (47%) respondents indicated that camp living conditions needed to change to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Conclusion
This study highlights low levels of COVID-19 knowledge and limited access to essential prevention and treatment resources among individuals living in Somali IDP camps. A massive influx of additional resources is required to adequately address COVID-19 in Somalia, starting with codesigning interventions to educate those individuals most vulnerable to infection.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.17.20176271: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Prior to the survey being interviewer-administered by multilingual and trained staff from the Hagarla Institute, verbal consent was obtained from each participant.
IRB: This study received approval from the ethics board at SIMAD University in Somalia and was deemed exempt from review by the Yale IRB (ID #2000028344).Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from Limitatio…SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.17.20176271: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Prior to the survey being interviewer-administered by multilingual and trained staff from the Hagarla Institute, verbal consent was obtained from each participant.
IRB: This study received approval from the ethics board at SIMAD University in Somalia and was deemed exempt from review by the Yale IRB (ID #2000028344).Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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