Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 among Palestinians during the COVID-19 outbreak: A cross-sectional survey
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Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious illness that spreads rapidly through human-to-human transmission. On March 5, the government of Palestine declared a state of emergency in order to curb the spread of the virus, a declaration that it extended for a fifth time on July 5 th . The degree to which a population complies with corresponding safety measures is surely affected by the people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards the disease. To explore this hypothesis, we gathered data from 1,731 Palestinians between April 19 th and May 1 st , 2020 through a KAP questionnaire. The participant pool represented a stratified sample of Palestinians living across a number of governorates in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with 36.5% from Gaza and (63.5%) from the West Bank. Gender was almost equally distributed within the sample with (51%) men respondents and (49%) women respondent. The questionnaire included 17 questions about participants’ knowledge and awareness of COVID–19, 17 questions regarding the safety measures they had taken in the wake of the outbreak and 3 questions asking them to assess the efficacy of the government’s response to the pandemic. Our data shows that 79% of the respondents have good awareness about transmission of the virus, 55.6% were knowledgeable of the symptoms exhibited by an infected individual, 81% were aware of the preventative measures and 82% demonstrated awareness of the risk groups. Most participants complied with preventative measures (77%) and 62% the study participants agreed that stricter measures have to be enforced by the government to limit the spread of the virus. Our study revealed that younger participants and people with higher educational level demonstrated more awareness of the virus. Also, Women were reported to be more aware of preventative measures and to have complied more with good practices. We report that residents of the West Bank have complied more with the right practices when compared to residents of Gaza. Based on the results of this study, we conclude that health education programs aimed at improving the public’s understanding of COVID-19 are important in helping the population maintain appropriate practices and should be target people with lower educational level, and that findings such as those discussed in this report may provide valuable feedback to lawmakers working to stop the spread of the virus.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.13.20211888: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Approval from National ethical committee was obtained (PHRC/HC/718/20).
Consent: Written informed consents were obtained from the 1355 study participants.Randomization The process for conducting cluster sampling was carried as follows: (1) Selecting a cluster of households (2) Selecting 10 households randomly from each cluster and (3) Selecting a person at random from the selected household. 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 …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.13.20211888: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Approval from National ethical committee was obtained (PHRC/HC/718/20).
Consent: Written informed consents were obtained from the 1355 study participants.Randomization The process for conducting cluster sampling was carried as follows: (1) Selecting a cluster of households (2) Selecting 10 households randomly from each cluster and (3) Selecting a person at random from the selected household. 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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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.12.20170852: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable In total, we received completed questionnaires from 1,731participants, of whom 49.3% were women and 50.7% were men. 36.5% of respondents were from Gaza and 63.5 % were from the West Bank, including participants from different areas of residency; 74.5% of respondents were living in cities, 19.1% in villages and 6.8% in camps. 53.8% held a Bachelor’s degrees or higher. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Data Analysis: Data analysis was conducted using the statistical software (IBM SPSS 23.0) to produce a preliminary … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.12.20170852: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable In total, we received completed questionnaires from 1,731participants, of whom 49.3% were women and 50.7% were men. 36.5% of respondents were from Gaza and 63.5 % were from the West Bank, including participants from different areas of residency; 74.5% of respondents were living in cities, 19.1% in villages and 6.8% in camps. 53.8% held a Bachelor’s degrees or higher. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Data Analysis: Data analysis was conducted using the statistical software (IBM SPSS 23.0) to produce a preliminary cross-tabulation of the study variables with the background indicators. SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)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.
-