Knowledge about covid-19 among citizens in thi-qar governorate/iraq: An online survey

Abstract

Epidemics of infectious disease, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), necessitates knowledge assessment of pertinent populations as fast as possible because the findings are of great importance to the public health response. This study aims to (i) Assess the knowledge of Iraqi residents about COVID-19 and (ii) Identify the relationship between certain demographic features and the overall knowledge. This study was conducted in Thi-Qar governorate/Iraq, the researcher used an electronic survey questionnaire (using google form), the Uniform Resource Locator was distributed through social media platforms with brief introduction concerning the study. The tool of the study (questionnaire) involved of two parts: demographics (4 items) and knowledge questionnaire (3 sub-domains including 12 items). The total correct answers rate was (88.1%). Lowest answers rate scored in routes of transmission sub-domain (82.5%) while control and prevention (92.7%) sub-domain scored the highest rate. Mean knowledge score of 10.57 (standard deviation: 1.5, Range: 0-12). Also, results display highly significant relationships between overall knowledge and demographic characteristics (P <0.001). Conclusion: Most well-educated Iraqi residents, particularly males, are knowledgeable about COVID-19. However, this result should be generalized with caution due to limited sample representativeness.