Community Risk Perception and Compliance with Preventive Measures for COVID-19 Pandemic in Ethiopia

Abstract

Purpose

This study assessed the community’s level of risk perception of COVID-19, their compliance with recommended precautionary measures, and factors that influence compliance behavior.

Methods

This study is a cross-sectional online survey administered using google forms. Data were collected from 521 respondents using various social media channels, including e-mail, Facebook, messenger, telegram, and IMO.

Results

About 9 in 10 respondents (90.4%) perceived that they are susceptible to COVID-19. Nearly 9 in 10 participants (87.5%) perceived that COVID-19 is a serious disease. The majority of respondents (81%) got information about COVID-19 from television and social networking sites. The regression analyses revealed that compliance with preventive behaviors is differed by respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics. Being female (β: 0.094, P<0.05), higher perceived effectiveness of recommended preventive measures (β: 0.367, P<0.001), and higher perceived reliability of media (β: 0.189, P<0.001) facilitated compliance with preventive measures. On the other hand, increasing age (β: −0.096, P<0.05), being single (β: −0.127, P<0.01), lower education level (β: −0.168, P<0.01), and living at a lower administrative level were barriers to be compliant with preventive measures.

Conclusion

The majority of the respondents exercised one or more of the recommended preventive measures to avoid COVID-19 infection. Most of the respondents got information about COVID-19 from television and social networking sites. Given that about 80% of the Ethiopian population is living in rural areas without television and higher illiteracy rate to use social networking sites, concerned bodies should introduce tailored interventions to impart knowledge about COVID-19 infection and mitigating measures.

Limitations

Although the sampling procedure was random through the online system, it might not be representative to study the perception and compliance of people towards COVID-19 prevention practices at a country level due to its small size. Thus, the interpretation of the study findings needs to consider this limitation.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• risk perception
• media exposure
• compliance with prevention

Ethics and Consent

The study was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and fulfilled the requirements of Ethiopian National Health Research and Ethics Guideline. Moreover, the study received ethical approval from Ethical Review Committee of Bahir Dar University. Information and informed consent sheet were sent to each study participant together with the questionnaire. Consequently, data were collected after getting their informed consent from each study participant. Participation was fully voluntary based including not responding after reading the instructions and questions. Data confidentiality was maintained through anonymity by avoiding any personal identifiers. Since data collection was online through a log-in system, the process was secured.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.