Knowledge, Attitude, Practices (KAP) and Psychological Impact of COVID-19 among Pakistani Population: A Quick Cross-Sectional Online Study

Saadia Ijaz, Masood Afzal, Tahir Naeem, Nayab Zaid, Syed Faraz Gillani, Aqib Saeed, Kashif Ur Rehman, Shafay Haseeb, Maria Najeeb

Abstract


Background: Coronavirus causes extremely contagious infection and currently is a major threat for the public health globally. The aim of this study was to evaluate the current level of awareness towards Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) among Pakistani residents, their attitude, practices and psychological impact towards COVID-19 those contribute in an important way to control this pandemic.

Methods: A cross sectional online study was conducted. A self-developed online questionnaire was made by Google forms and sent to the author’s network with local residents in Pakistan. The questionnaire contained 35 questions among which 6 questions were related with the demographic features, 14 questions assess knowledge of participants, 4 questions evaluate the attitude, 7 questions assess the practices of the participants towards COVID-19 and 4 questions assess the psychological impact towards COVID-19.

Results: Among the participants (n=528) 66.7% were female and 33.3% were male. Among them 49.8% of the participants were from the age group of 18-24 and the percentage of students was higher i.e. 39.8%. The overall range for correct answers for the knowledge questionnaire was 97.5%-46.8%, for attitude 75.2%-91.9% and for practices 39%-95%. 79% of the participants were confident that Pakistan will overcome the disaster situation of COVID-19.

Conclusion: The findings of the current study indicated that Knowledge among the Pakistani residents about COVID-19 was found satisfactory. A significant number of the participants still lacking confidence when compared with the other countries. However, to effectively control the infection spread and improving COVID-19 knowledge the well-structured awareness programs must be launched by the government those could be helpful for Pakistani residents to hold optimistic attitudes and maintain appropriate practices.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pakistani residents; KAP; Psychological impact; Google forms 


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.62940/als.v8i3.1157

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