Estimating the public response to mitigation measures and self-perceived behaviours towards the COVID-19 pandemic

Since March 2020, a rapid increase has been observed in the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has essentially resulted from increased disease transmission and intensified testing and reporting. The international guidelines for the prevention and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic have been frequently updated. Such guidelines assist the governmental regulatory bodies in taking optimal measures and safeguarding their citizens against the pandemic. We conducted a short survey with a Saudi cohort to understand the awareness about COVID-19 and estimate the responses for mitigation strategies.

An electronic survey was conducted, and the first 388 responses were analysed for publishing an initial report. The questionnaire comprised 27 items and was divided into three sections, namely demographic, awareness, and response to mitigation strategies and participants' self-perceived behaviours regarding COVID-19. The perceptions of the participants were compared with their responses to mitigation measures.

In our study, 89.7% understood the meaning of pandemic, while 82.2% correctly identified that the elderly belonged to a high-risk group for the COVID-19 infection. As many as 96.1% agreed that staying at home was one of the mitigation strategies. Nearly 35% preferred self-medication. Higher educational level (OR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.02-4.29) and longer working hours were found to be significantly associated with a positive response to mitigation measures with p < 0.04 and p < 0.02, respectively.

We report better understanding and appropriate response to mitigation measures towards the COVID-19 pandemic among the general population in KSA. Nevertheless, the tendency towards self-medication was reported by one-third of the responders.