Knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 among adults (18-64 years) in Hamburg metropolitan city

Abstract

Introduction COVID-19 has been recognized as the deadliest pandemic of the 21st Century, posing (and has posed) serious public health threat worldwide. Knowledge and public awareness on the disease transmission, understanding peoples’ basic hygiene principles and attitudes and practices towards the disease are very important to successfully control the virus transmission. This study aims to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 among adults (18-64 years) in Hamburg Metropolitian City and understand how socio-demographic determinants affect the KAP towards the disease. It also examines the quality of life of adults during the fourth wave of COVID-19 in Hamburg. Methods A cross sectional online survey questionnaire was distributed to the adult population (18-64 years) in Hamburg. The questionnaire was developed in both German and English languages. This questionnaire gathered information on respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, source of information, knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 and quality of life. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 and quality of life. Independent T test and ANOVA were used to identify whether socio-demographic characteristics are associated with KAP and QOL. Lastly, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was used to find the assocation between knowledge, attitude, practice and quality of life. Result A total of 292 participants were recruited, out of which 186 were female and 106 were male with a mean age of 28.23 years. The study findings suggest that 68.8% of respondents had moderate knowledge, 17.47% had positive attitude and 63.70% had proactive practices towards COVID-19. Based on T test and ANOVA test of significance, knowledge score was significant with gender (p=0.008) and practice score was significant with gender (p<0.001), marital status(p<0.001) and work or study (p=0.024). The result also showed significant correlation between knowledge, attitude and practice. Attitude of subjects were also positively correlated with quality of life. Conclusion The study finding revealed that Hamburg population exhibited moderate knowledge, neutral attitude and proactive practices toward COVID-19 during the later phase of pandemic. Moreover, the participants also demonstrated good quality of life. Health education aiming to improve COVID-19 knowledge must be encouraged to bring positive attitude and proactive practices. Moreover, the general populaiton should be trained by the public health experts to cope with similar outbreak in the near future.