Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices towards COVID-19 of Pregnant Women at a Primary Health Care Facility in South Africa

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people globally. Several preventive measures have been recommended to reduce the spread of the disease. However, the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of these preventive measures among pregnant women, are yet to be evaluated in South Africa. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the KAP towards COVID-19 among pregnant women. The purpose was to identify KAP gaps of pregnant women and develop educational materials and implement programmes. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was undertaken. Student’s t-test, ANOVA test, Pearson’s correlation test and Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out. Majority of the respondents were single (71%), unemployed (52%), and had low education (78% had either no or less than 12 years education). More than half (51.2%) had vulnerable comorbidities for COVID-19 infection and complication. Both knowledge and attitude mean of pregnant women were found to be low at 43.5% and 30% respectively. However, their practice on prevention of COVID-19 was good at 76%. Knowledge was found to be significantly positively correlated with practice towards COVID-19 (r= 0.111). Women having good knowledge were seven times more likely to practice positively regarding COVID-19 (P=0.019). Women having 1-5 years of education were 94% less likely to practice good towards COVID-19 prevention (P=0.018) compared to those having post matric education. The pregnant women in this research had inadequate knowledge and attitude of COVID-19 infection. However, preventive practices were good among them. Mass education and communication strategies are thus required to improve the knowledge and attitudes of pregnant women towards COVID-19.