Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices toward COVID-19 among Persian Birth Cohort Participants

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 play an important role in controlling the outbreak. The present study aimed to investigate the KAP of a group of women toward COVID-19 during the second wave of the outbreak in Iran.

A cross-sectional survey of 2862 women was conducted in May and June 2020 in two centers of Persian birth cohort. The survey instrument was a self-reported questionnaire Multivariable linear regression analysis to identify factors associated with knowledge and practice. toward COVID-19 and multinomial logistic regression analyses to identify factors associated with attitudes. Unstandardized regression coefficients (β) and odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were used to quantify the associations between variables and KAP.

Good knowledge and optimistic attitudes toward the successful control of COVID-19 was seen among participants. Overall, about 57.3% (1640), 41.1% (1176), and 1.6% (46) of respondents were categorized as low (score <50%), moderate (score: 50%-80%), and high (score > 80%) proper practice, respectively. Eighty-five individuals with COVID-19 experience (3.0%) had lower knowledge score (79.91 ± 17.93 vs. 83.81 ± 13.88, P < 0.001) and lower proper practice score (40.22 ± 16.57 vs. 47.96 ± 16.15, respectively, P < 0.001) compared to those who were not infected. A higher level of knowledge was associated with appropriate practice in both groups of positive attitudes (χ² = 32.23, P < 0.001) and negative attitudes (χ² = 31.49, P < 0.001).

This survey recorded good knowledge and relatively good attitudes among women. Special health policies plan should be taken for target populations among women during the COVID-19 pandemic.