Iranians Knowledge and Practices towards Prevention of COVID-19 in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is the sixth most common public health emergency in the world. Personal hygiene and social distancing are very important at this time. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge and practice of Iranians in the prevention of COVID-19 in 2020.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a multi-stage online electronic questionnaire was designed and validated by health experts and Cronbach'salpha test. The questionnaire was filled by 660 volunteers from July 21, 2020 for one week through the social media. Independent t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Ethics in research and confidentiality of answers were given on the first pageof the questionnaire.

The average level of knowledge and practice of participants were moderate at 66.64 and 54.89%, respectively. The level of trust on social media, including domestic radio and television, the website of the Ministry of Health and social networks, was 67.9%, 63.3% and 84.54%, respectively. There observed significant differences between the knowledge of housewives and government employees (p-value <0.05), the age groups of 41-50 years and 31-40 years (p-value <0.05). Indeed, there was a significant difference between the performance of healthy and affected people as well as between those referred to medical centers and those who did not refer (p-value <0.05).

In the present study, different people in the community havemoderate knowledge and practice to prevent COVID-19. Continuation and increase of health protocols of special importance in accordance with the health protocols provided by World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, such as social distancing, washing the hands, disinfecting of hands and use of mask are important.