COVID-19 AND CHANGING BEHAVIORS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL ONLINE SURVEY AMONG STUDENTS IN BANGLADESH

*Dr. Irin Hossain, Prof. Dr. Sk Akhtar Ahmad, Prof. Dr. Manzurul Haque Khan, *Dr. Ashekur Rahman Mullick, Dr. M. M. Aktaruzzaman, Dr. Md. Shafiur Rahman and Dr. Ummul Khair Alam

ABSTRACT

The knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 play an important role in defining a society’s eagerness to accept behavioral change measures from health authorities. This study was a cross-sectional online survey regarding the knowledge, attitudes and practices of participants towards COVID-19. It was conducted from the 6 to 17 August, 2020. As it was not viable to do an institutional-based sampling, so it was decided to collect the data online. A total of 378 participants participated in the study. Out of the total, the mean age was 17.03 years (SD = 0.168, range = 17-18), 255 (67.5%) were female. A total of thirteen questions were used to measure knowledge on the COVID-19 virus. The mean knowledge score for participants was 10.77 (SD = 0.588, range 8–12). Participants were asked eleven questions in assessment of attitudes. The attitude of successfully controlling COVID-19 was significantly associated with age group, region and occupation. In order to assess the practices followed by the participants to prevent COVID-19 infection, all of the participants shared their agreement on avoiding meetings with friends, eating-out and sport events, as well as avoiding places where a large number of people would gather. The present study showed a good knowledge, positive attitudes and suitable practices in students of Dhaka. The health awareness programs, that are designed after pandemic declaration by WHO, played a vital role in improving the knowledge of the population, attitudes encouragement and sustaining the safer practices towards this COVID-19. In fact, this disease played a role of game changer in changing KAP in student.

Keywords: Changing Behaviors, Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, COVID-19 Pandemic.