Covid-19 affects most of higher education group of peoples; students at higher institutions must be equipped with knowledge, perception, and practice on anticipation measures and ways of transmission. The point of this investigation is to determine the level of knowledge, perception, and practices of students toward COVID-19 at selected Ethiopian higher education institutions. A cross-sectional web survey was conducted from August 10, 2020, to August 30, 2020. The instrument consisted of 8 items on Demographic characteristics, 15 items on knowledge, 4 items on perception, 15 items on practices, and 3 items information usages, changed from a formerly published survey on COVID-19. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The result revealed that from the total 342 participants, the majority of students (59.6%) were females, and most of them are young aged below 30 (84.2%). Similarly, most of them were living in Addis Ababa city government 298 (87.1%) and had a degree level of education 244 (71.3%). Most members were likewise playing it safe, for example, staying away from swarms 158 (46.2%) and 83.6% of respondents approached water to wash. In any case, just 37.4% of the respondents have access to infrastructures such as the internet, and 78.4 of the respondent’s approach to laptop or smart-phone. Knowledge, perception, and practice of students play a great role in understanding student’s readiness towards the pandemic of Covid-19. It is also crucial to take actions that help to fight the pandemic. Most of the respondents have access to water for washing, while the majority of them have no sufficient infrastructure for online learning, including the internet, access to laptop, and/or smart-phone during Covid-19. Besides, television and radio, and social media are the most frequently used sources to obtain information about the pandemic.
Research
Knowledge, Perception, and Practice of Student’s Challenge faced towards COVID-19 at Selected Higher Education Institutions in Ethiopia. A cross-sectional web survey
https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1497089/v1
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License
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Knowledge
Perception
Practice
Higher Education
COVID-19
Students
Challenge
Novel corona virus disease (Covid-19) is the multidimensional that affect all of us. The corona virus pandemic first emerged in Wuhan city of China’s Hubei province (N. Ahmed et al., 2020; Anjum, 2020). Corona virus pandemic has brought about more than 34 million confirmed cases and more than one million deaths around the world. In Ethiopia first case was reported for on March 13, 2020, by WHO, and right now more than 75 thousand confirmed cases and more than one thousand deaths were recorded (October 1, 2020). Covid-19 has spread in all continents in a span of just over three months, escalating into a pandemic that poses several humanitarian as well as scientific challenges (Pansini & Fornacca, 2020). Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus pandemic is a zoonotic corona virus and crosses species to infect human populations, where an efficient transmission of the virus occurs human to human (Anjum, 2020). The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infection is higher in countries with lower yearly average temperatures, higher economic openness (Hossain, 2020).
Coronavirus disease was a potentially fatal disease and has become a global public health concern (Kashid, 2020). People exposed to COVID-19 have a risk of developing disease, and health care workers are at risk at a time when they are badly needed during a health care crisis (Dousa et al., 2020). In the COVID-19 outbreak, governments have applied progressive restrictions to production activities, permitting only those that are considered strategic, or that provides essential services (Bellomarini et al., 2020). In an effort to mitigate the outbreak of COVID-19, many countries have imposed drastic lockdown, movement control, or shelter in place orders on their residents (Azlan et al., 2020). The outbreak also challenges a series of commoditization policies that have been implemented in the public health sector over the years (ESU, 2020).
The recent corona-virus disease pandemic is associated with increasing morbidity and mortality and has impacted the lives of the global populations (Khasawneh et al., 2020). The number of infections and death by COVID-19 has been rapidly increased since December 2019 in all over the world (Mohd & Lai, 2020). The novel-corona-virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is currently a pandemic and public health emergency of international concern, as avowed by the WHO(Kebede et al., 2020). The health crisis of the COVID-19 outbreak has global impacts on humanity and the economy (Ling & Ho, 2020).COVID-19 is a global concern affecting Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This pandemic led to a strong reaction among students who experience anxiety (Baloran, 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge to the health of the world population; therefore, these results assessing students’ knowledge provide an important baseline for planning required educational interventions such as contact tracing and self-quarantine (Djuanda et al., 2020). The intention of this study is to identify the challenge faced by students at higher education during COVID-19 in Ethiopia.
There are many studies produced currently in relation to COVID-19. However, still, there is opposing findings in many areas, which requires further investigation. Even though many studies have been conducted in the subject matter of students KPP of COVID-19, the focus areas are limited to describing the existing situation about the study area. This may not be generalized and applicable to different countries and different situations. For instance geographically, most of the studies on KAP has been conducted in the Asia and Middle East countries such as; Libya (Elhadi et al., 2020); Malaysia (Chee et al., 2021); Iraq (Alnasser et al., 2021; Khalil et al., 2020); Bangladeshi (Elhadi et al., 2020); China (B. L. Zhong et al., 2020), and etc. Few studies are conducted in Ethiopia on assessment of KPP on COVID-19 (Angelo et al., 2021). However, these studies were conducted in the areas the prevalence of COVID-19 is low, while our study is among the first conducted in the area that the prevalence of COVID-19 is high in Ethiopia. In general, to date, there has been limited published data on higher education institutions students’ knowledge, perception, and practices toward COVID-19, specifically in Ethiopia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in Addis Ababa (COVID-19 highly affected area in Ethiopia), investigating the knowledge, perception, and practices of students’ challenges faced towards COVID-19 among the higher education students.
As study conducted by different scholars (Albaqawi et al., 2020; Chee et al., 2021; Elhadi et al., 2020) focuses on determining the extent of knowledge, preventive behavior and perception of COVID-19 among college students, mainly focuses in assessing the students of Health related discipline KPP (Albaqawi et al., 2020; Chee et al., 2021; Khalil et al., 2020). However, this study is not limited to the health discipline only, but it includes all disciplines. The previous study also mostly focuses on the knowledge, attitude, and practices of undergraduate students (Khalil et al., 2020), while this study compare and contrast the differences in knowledge and practices among post graduate and undergraduate studies. Even though, previous studies compared the KAP among respondent’s demographic characteristics (S. Ahmed et al., 2021; Alnasser et al., 2021), this study further compares the private university against the public universities, senior students against junior students, and students from rural areas against students from urban areas. This is because, the extent of seeking, usage and trust of different sources of information is different among different areas and groups, which requires different recommendations for the national and local administrators. Therefore, this study is aimed to assess the level of knowledge, perception, and practices of students toward COVID-19 at selected Ethiopian higher education institutions. It further focuses on testing the significance differences among the various socio-demographic variables.
Study Design and Population
A cross-sectional study, using a web survey, was conducted from August 10, 2020, to August 30, 2020. As the Ethiopian government recommended the public to minimize face-to-face interaction and isolate them at home, potential respondents were electronically invited to participate. Thus, a web-based questionnaire using a Microsoft office form was distributed through “telegram” groups and social media using a snowball technique. Selected Ethiopians higher education institutions both the government and privates and who agreed to participate in the study were included. No exclusion criteria were applied. Participants were identified via professional groups and academic institutions.
Sample Size Determination
The sample size was determined using the Cochran’s formula sample size designed specifically for population surveys. By considering the total population as unknown, we used the unknown population sample size determination formula. The population of the study for this specific study is more than 10,000. Therefore, using Cochran’s formula a total of 385 respondents were selected and included in the study. For non-probability sampling, participants are selected based on their availability and convenience and having features that the researcher seeks to study(Creswell, 2009).Suppose we wish to illustrate wide higher education institutions in which students were encouraged to assess the level of knowledge, perception, and practice (KPP) of student’s challenges faced towards COVID-19 in selected Ethiopian higher education. Assume there is a large population but that we do not know the variability in the proportion that adopt KPP; therefore, assume p=0.5 (maximum variability). Furthermore, suppose we desire a 95% confidence level and ±5% precision. The resulting sample size is demonstrated in Equation 1.
Instrumentation
A structured self-administered questionnaire was initially developed and designed by the authors in the English language on the aspect of knowledge, perception, and practice of student’s challenges faced towards COVID-19 in selected higher institutions in Ethiopia. The instrument consisted of 8 items on demographic characteristics, 15 items on knowledge most of them adopted from (Zhong et al., 2020) and modified to localize with Ethiopian context, 4 items on perception modified from (Olum & Bongomin, 2020) attitude measuring items, 15 items on practices five of them adopted from (Olum & Bongomin, 2020), and 3 items information usages from (Lau et al., 2020).
Data collection
Data was collected using a web survey. An invitation, including a link to the web survey platform, requesting Kotebe Metropolitan University to participate in this survey was prepared. The invitation includes information describing the survey and asking selected of higher education students as well as declarations of confidentiality and anonymity, and instructions for filling in the questionnaire. This invitation was sent to approximately 3000 higher education students through professional groups and academic institutions.
Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis was carried out using Excel Microsoft office and statistical software SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), version 20.0. The data analysis was employed in descriptive statistics analysis including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and ANOVA. Both bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify associated factors of good knowledge and good practice. The analyzed data was presented using tables.
Demographic characteristics
In this study, the frequency and percentage analysis were performed of the different questions addressed under the socio demographic domain. Other demographic characteristics are detailed in Table 1.
|
Variables |
Options |
Frequency |
Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Gender |
Male |
138 |
40.4 |
|
Female |
204 |
59.6 |
|
|
Age |
< 25 |
212 |
62.0 |
|
26–29 |
76 |
22.2 |
|
|
>=30 |
54 |
15.8 |
|
|
Institution |
KMU |
96 |
28.1 |
|
RVU |
42 |
12.3 |
|
|
AU |
134 |
39.2 |
|
|
Others |
22 |
6.4 |
|
|
Study year |
First |
96 |
28.1 |
|
Second |
126 |
36.8 |
|
|
Third |
94 |
27.5 |
|
|
Fourth |
6 |
1.8 |
|
|
Others |
20 |
5.8 |
|
|
Educational level |
TVET |
10 |
2.9 |
|
Degree |
244 |
71.3 |
|
|
Masters |
84 |
24.6 |
|
|
PHD |
4 |
1.2 |
|
|
Location |
Urban |
298 |
87.1 |
|
Rural |
26 |
7.6 |
|
|
Sub-urban |
18 |
5.3 |
|
|
Type of streams |
Natural Science |
94 |
27.5 |
|
Social Science |
248 |
72.5 |
|
|
Type of institutions |
Government institutions |
151 |
44.15 |
|
Private institutions |
191 |
55.85 |
Most of them are second-year students (36.8%) followed by freshmen (28.1%) and third-year students (27.5%). Their educational level is 74.2% are undergraduates and 25.8% are postgraduate students. This implies that most of the respondents were undergraduate students from higher education. Based on the location of the respondents 298 (87.1%) were urban, 18 (5.3%) were suburban and 26 (7.6%) were rural. This result indicated that most students from urban had access to internet service, while suburban and rural had no access to internet service. Regarding the institutions, most of the respondents are from private institutions 191 (55.85%), whereas 151(44.15%) were from governmental institutions. The majority of the respondents were from Admas university college 134 (39.2%) followed by Kotebe Metropolitan University 96 (28.1%) and Rift Valley University 42 (12.3%) specified in (Table 1). Also, most of the respondents were from social science 248 (72.5%) whereas 94 (27.5%) from natural science.
|
Items |
How often do you use the following sources for information about COVID-19? |
How much do you trust information about COVID-19 from the following sources? |
How often do you seek information about COVID-19? |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mean |
St. Dev. |
Mean |
St. Dev. |
Mean |
St. Dev. |
|
|
Television & Radio |
4.01 |
1.112 |
3.61 |
1.074 |
3.73 |
0.913 |
|
Social media |
4.13 |
1.039 |
2.88 |
0.939 |
3.44 |
1.028 |
|
Printing Media |
2.52 |
1.265 |
2.98 |
0.962 |
2.23 |
1.024 |
|
Health Institution & worker |
3.05 |
1.258 |
4.08 |
0.957 |
3.28 |
1.178 |
As indicated in Table 2, the mean and standard deviation of information sources used by students, the extent of students trusts in the source and the tendency of seeking information. The results about the frequency of usage of the Medias revealed that television and radio (Mean = 4.01; St. Dev. = 1.112), and social media (mean = 4.13; St. Dev., 1.039) are used frequently, while the majority of the respondents are using the printing media less frequently. The highest standard deviation is recorded in printing media (Mean = 2.52; St. Dev. = 1.265), which means the responses from the respondents are highly deviated and used to different extent. In general, most of the respondents obtained information’s from television and radio, while only gets information from printing Media. Regarding the trust that students have in different information sources, on average the respondents have high trust in the health institution and worker (Mean = 4.08; St. Dev. = .957), followed by television and radio (Mean = 3.61; St. Dev. = 1.074). Even though most of the respondents use information from social media, it’s the least trusted source of information among the others (Mean = 2.88; St. Dev. = .939). For the question how often do you seek information about COVID-19, its rated as television and radio (Mean = 3.73; St. Dev. = 0.913), social media (Mean = 3.44; St. Dev., 1.028), Health Institution and worker (Mean = 3.28; St. Dev. = 1.178), and printing medias (Mean = 2.23; St. Dev. = 1.024). Regarding COVID-19, most of them used social media to obtain the information (61%), a significant proportion of HCWs had poor knowledge of its transmission (61%), and symptoms onset (63.6%) and showed a positive perception of COVID-19 prevention and control(Bhagavathula et al., 2020).
|
Items |
Information usage from TV & Radio |
Information usage from social media |
Information usage from Printing media |
Information usage from Health intn. & Workers |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
F |
Sig. |
F |
Sig. |
F |
Sig. |
F |
Sig. |
|
|
Gender |
.829 |
.363 |
.825 |
.364 |
4.485 |
.035 |
.839 |
.360 |
|
Age |
5.136 |
.006 |
6.726 |
.001 |
2.070 |
.128 |
2.901 |
.056 |
|
University |
1.135 |
.287 |
1.704 |
.193 |
8.292 |
.004 |
.062 |
.803 |
|
Academic Year |
4.467 |
.035 |
4.948 |
.027 |
.147 |
.702 |
.660 |
.417 |
|
Educational level |
8.200 |
.004 |
8.464 |
.004 |
.046 |
.830 |
.601 |
.439 |
|
Location |
8.848 |
.003 |
1.518 |
.219 |
6.037 |
.015 |
5.377 |
.021 |
The results in Table 3revealed that the significant difference between demographic characteristics in relation to the frequency of usage of different sources of information. The frequency of information usage from television and radio is significantly different between the different age groups (F = 5.136; p = .006) as well as between the freshman and senior students (F = 4.467; p = .035). Similarly, there is a significant difference between undergraduate and postgraduate students (F = 8.200; p = .004) on the extent of television and radio information usage. Moreover, the extent of information usage is significantly different among students located in urban and rural areas (F = 8.848; p = .003). Regarding the information usage from social media, there is a significant difference between different age groups, academic year, and their educational level of study, while there is no significant difference between age groups, type of institution, and location.
|
Items |
M |
S.D. |
Students t-value |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Gender |
Age |
Institution |
Study year |
Education |
Location |
|||
|
To what extent you agree that COVID-19 will finally be successfully controlled? |
3.35 |
1.123 |
− .84 |
-1.66 |
1.63 |
-1.40 |
-1.59 |
− .674 |
|
To what extent you agree that Ethiopia can win the battle against the COVID-19 virus |
3.47 |
1.111 |
1.77* |
− .053 |
.087 |
.779 |
.586 |
1.87* |
|
To what extent you agree that anxiety or restlessness during the COVID-19 increased |
3.54 |
.976 |
-1.72* |
− .626 |
2.44** |
1.968* |
− .537 |
.965 |
|
To what extent you agree that you are facing difficulties in discussing doubts on COVID-19 |
3.33 |
1.066 |
.288 |
− .632 |
-1.18 |
− .164 |
.758 |
.411 |
As shown in Table 4, on average, more than half of students believe that the pandemic will be controlled successfully (Mean = 3.35; St. Dev. = 1.123). Similarly, in particular to the Ethiopian case, more than half of the students perceived that Ethiopia can successfully win the battle (Mean = 3.47; St. Dev. = 1.111). On average the mean score on the perception of controlling the pandemic is greater for Ethiopia. This might be because of the less spread of the virus in Ethiopia compared to highly affected countries. Regarding the increment of anxiety or restlessness during COVID-19 it’s moderately high (Mean = 3.54; St. Dev. = .976) compared to the other items. This may be because of the fact that all the movements and activities are full of risk, which results in an increase in anxiety. The lowest standard deviation recorded in this item revealed that the responses among the students are not highly deviated, which means relatively similar perceptions is there among the respondents. Finally, there is a moderate perception of the difficulties faced in discussing doubts on COVID-19 (Mean = 3.33; St. Dev. = 1.066).
As stated in Table 4, the analysis suggests that there is a significant difference between male and female perception of winning the battle against COVID-19 and anxiety and restlessness during COVID-19. The age of respondents has no significant difference in all the items. Similarly, there is no difference in perception among undergraduate and post-graduate students. On the other hand, there is a significant difference among public higher education and private higher education students on their perception of the level of anxiety during COVID-19. Similarly, freshman and senior students perceive differently on the extent of anxiety and restlessness during COVID-19. Moreover, students from urban and rural areas perceive differently on the battle that Ethiopia can win COVID-19.
|
No. |
Practices |
Options |
Freq. |
%ge |
Student t-value |
|||||
|
Gender |
Age |
Institution |
Study year |
Education |
Location |
|||||
|
1. |
In recent days, have you gone to any crowded place? |
May be |
40 |
2.90*** |
1.531 |
-1.41 |
.260 |
5.37*** |
-1.11 |
|
|
No |
158 |
46.2 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
144 |
42.1 |
||||||||
|
2. |
In recent days, have you worn a mask when leaving home? |
May be |
14 |
4.1 |
-1.42 |
.000 |
3.63*** |
.039 |
.288 |
.267 |
|
No |
74 |
21.6 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
254 |
74.3 |
||||||||
|
3. |
Do you have sufficient infrastructure for online learning (e.g Internet) |
May be |
64 |
18.7 |
− .200 |
.148 |
− .831 |
.344 |
1.635 |
.617 |
|
No |
150 |
43.9 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
128 |
37.4 |
||||||||
|
4. |
Do you use disinfectants regularly? |
May be |
50 |
14.6 |
-2.04** |
2.42** |
2.320** |
-1.42 |
1.010 |
− .436 |
|
No |
64 |
18.7 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
228 |
66.7 |
||||||||
|
5. |
Do you keep your social distance as WHO recommended? |
May be |
58 |
17.0 |
− .290 |
.485 |
-1.55 |
− .311 |
3.59*** |
− .494 |
|
No |
74 |
21.6 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
210 |
61.4 |
||||||||
|
6. |
Are you able to practice or simple breathing techniques to de-stress yourself? |
May be |
58 |
17.0 |
− .566 |
1.883* |
.882 |
− .437 |
3.05*** |
-2.68** |
|
No |
148 |
43.3 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
136 |
39.8 |
||||||||
|
7. |
Do you practice the volunteer work on Covid-19 issues? |
May be |
42 |
12.3 |
− .540 |
1.671* |
.787 |
-1.24 |
-1.24 |
-1.50 |
|
No |
202 |
59.1 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
98 |
28.7 |
||||||||
|
8. |
Do you always practice or follows the online teaching and learning methods? |
May be |
66 |
19.3 |
2.33** |
.926 |
-2.82*** |
1.74* |
1.020 |
2.45** |
|
No |
106 |
31.0 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
170 |
49.7 |
||||||||
As indicated in Table 5, the current practices among students were described. For the item “in recent days, have you gone to any crowded place? Almost the percentage of students gone to crowded places and not going to crowded places are equal, which is 144 (42.1%) and 158 (46.2%) respectively. Still, there are students who are not wearing masks (21.6%) and 4.1% of them may wear masks. Besides, most of them (66.7%) are using disinfectants regularly, while 18.7% of them are not using disinfectants regularly. This should be taken into account since it facilitates the spread of the virus, especially at the opening of school.
To de-stress themselves about 39.8% of the students were made practices on simple breathing techniques, while 43.3% not practicing these simple breathing techniques. On the other hand, there are students (28.7%) who are practicing volunteer work, while the majority of the students (59.1%) are not involved in volunteer work. In the other practice, about 49.7% of the students were followed the online teaching and learning methods, while 31% of the respondents were not following the online teaching and learning practices. This shows that there is no coverage for all of the students to undertake online teaching and learning fully. Otherwise, students from low-income households who are not able to get infrastructure for online learning will be discriminated against.
The results show in Table 5 that the respondent’s movement to crowded place is significantly different among gender groups and the educational level they are studying. Regarding the mask-wearing practice, there is a significant difference between public and private higher education institutions. The sufficiency of infrastructures used for online learning was not different among gender groups, ages and types of institutions, educational level, study year, and residence locations. On the other hand, the frequency of using disinfectants is different among gender, age groups, and type of institutions. In terms of keeping social distancing, there is a significant difference between undergraduate and post-graduate students. In practicing a simple breathing technique, there is a significant difference among different age groups, educational level studying, and their livelihood locations. While practicing volunteer work is different among different age groups, the practice of following the online teaching and learning methods is significantly different among gender, types of institutions, study year, and livelihood location.
|
No |
Practices |
Options |
Freq |
%ge |
Gender |
Age |
Inst. |
Study year |
Educ. |
Loc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. |
The cause of the COVID-19 disease is Virus |
May be |
40 |
11.7 |
-1.359 |
.552 |
.495 |
.864 |
.184 |
-1.109 |
|
No |
22 |
6.4 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
280 |
81.9 |
||||||||
|
2. |
COVID-19 cases should be immediately isolated |
May be |
54 |
15.8 |
-1.755* |
1.76* |
− .597 |
1.351 |
− .112 |
− .738 |
|
No |
56 |
16.4 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
232 |
67.8 |
||||||||
|
3. |
Most COVID-19 infected people can recover completely |
May be |
116 |
33.9 |
− .680 |
− .519 |
1.169 |
2.20*** |
-2.02** |
.368 |
|
No |
56 |
16.4 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
170 |
49.7 |
||||||||
|
4. |
There is no effective curative treatment for COVID-19 |
May be |
70 |
20.5 |
-1.436 |
1.992** |
2.47** |
1.671* |
-1.719* |
.818 |
|
No |
106 |
31.0 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
166 |
48.5 |
||||||||
|
5. |
Generally, incubation period for COVID-19 is ≤ 14 days |
May be |
54 |
15.8 |
− .977 |
.828 |
1.085 |
-1.62 |
-1.143 |
− .940 |
|
No |
24 |
7.0 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
264 |
77.2 |
||||||||
|
6. |
The approximate mortality rate of COVID-19 is > 5% |
May be |
162 |
47.4 |
.294 |
1.695* |
-2.88*** |
− .530 |
3.07*** |
− .236 |
|
No |
78 |
22.8 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
102 |
29.8 |
||||||||
|
7. |
The main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, dry and cough |
May be |
16 |
4.7 |
− .300 |
.182 |
1.820* |
− .983 |
-1.444 |
.137 |
|
No |
14 |
4.1 |
||||||||
|
Yes |
312 |
91.2 |
As indicated in Table 6, the general knowledge of COVID-19 among students was measured by Yes and/ or No responses. Most of the respondents (81.9) have knowledge of the cause of COVID-19 disease as a virus. For the question “COVID-19 cases should be immediately isolated” the majority of the respondents knows that the people with COVID-19 cases must be isolated. However, 16.4% of the respondents answered no, which means no need for isolation for infected people. Similarly, 49.7% of the respondents believed that most COVID-19 infected people can recover completely, while 33.9% of them believed that most COVID-19 infected people may be recovered completely. On the other hand, 48.5% of the respondents believe that there is no effective curative treatment for COVID-19, while 31% believed that there is an effective curative treatment for COVID-19.
Regarding the period of incubation, about 77.2% of the respondents have know-how that the incubation period is less than 14 days and only 7% of the respondents believe that that the incubation period is more than 14 days. About 91.2% of the respondents provide correct answers that the main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, dry and cough. As shown in Table 6, the results revealed that, there is no significant difference among gender, ages, types of institutions, and other demographic factors regarding the knowledge on causes of COVID-19 and incubation period. However, there is significant difference on knowing the necessity of isolating COVID-19 cases among gender and age groups. Regarding the recovery of infected people, there is significant difference between freshman students and senior students as well as under graduate and postgraduate students.
A total of 342 respondents were participated in this study. From those, majority of students (59.6%) were females, and most of them were young aged below 30 (84.2%). It is similar with the study conducted by (Klein et al., 2015)in Italy, in which more than half of the respondents are female. However, in a study conducted in Nigeria approximately more than half of the respondents were male(Olapegba et al., 2020). Similar study conducted in Bangladeshi revealed that participants gather information on COVID-19 mostly through social media(Banik, 2020). Information’s from Health institution and worker are moderately used. Consistent with this study, (Albaqawi et al., 2020; Alnasser et al., 2021; Khalil et al., 2020) found that respondents are relied mainly on information’s obtained from social media. On the other hand, other study found that scientific websites and articles were used more commonly by medical and postgraduate students (Olaimat et al., 2020).
Besides, the printing media information usage is significantly different among male and females. The study stated that there is significant different among undergraduate and postgraduate students in using printed medias (Banik, 2020; Olaimat et al., 2020)(Olaimat et al., 2020). This information usage is also significantly different among types of institution and student’s location. Moreover, the extent of information used from health institution and their workers is significantly different among different age groups and locations. Majority of the students disagreed that the level of anxiety has not be increased. However, most of them agreed that they are facing difficulties in discussing doubts on COVID-19.
Regarding mask wearing, there is promising practices since 74.1% of the respondents worn the mask. That is, there are respondents goes to crowded places recently and majority of the respondent’s worn mask when they are leaving the home. Consistently, according to study reported in Chinese college students, during the quarantine period most college students reported a good health behavior in mask-wearing (94.06%), hand- washing (91.13%), and social distancing (89.49%) during the epidemic (Olaimat et al., 2020). Also, (Hatabu et al., 2021) found that most respondents showed a moderate or higher frequency of washing their hands or wearing masks. Also, students believed that Ethiopia can successfully control the pandemic. Consistently, previous studies stated that most participants held positive attitudes toward the successful control of COVID-19, the ability of Malaysia to conquer the disease, and the way the Malaysian government was handling the crisis (Akalu et al., 2020). Most participants were also taking precautions such as avoiding crowds and practicing proper hygiene in the week before the movement control order started. Other studies finding on the attitude and practice indicate that, a high number of students believed that hand washing is necessary for prevention of infection and mask wearing would prevent the infection (Alzoubi et al., 2020). Similarly, most students practiced the recommended measures (Chee et al., 2021)(Khalil et al., 2020). More than 90% of students have positive attitude on preventive measures towards COVID-19 (Khalil et al., 2020). Further, nearly all students were aware of the outbreak (99.2%) (Albaqawi et al., 2020).
In general, students demonstrated good knowledge, appropriate practice, and positive attitude about the infection(Alnasser et al., 2021). The study conducted in Japan shows that all respondents (100%) showed they possessed knowledge on avoiding enclosed spaces, crowded areas, and close situations (Hatabu et al., 2021).The studies performed in Ethiopia revealed that students had no sufficient knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice towards Covid-19(Angelo et al., 2021). Even though, good practices and attitudes are there among respondents from Ethiopia, compared to other countries, still it’s insufficient.
The finding of this study indicates that there is no sufficient infrastructure for online learning. Consistent with the finding conducted among the general public (Akalu et al., 2020), this study find that there is confusion among students regarding the transmission of the virus. Differences in knowledge scores among different demographic characteristics were tested and found that knowledge scores were significantly different across genders, age groups, regions, occupation groups and income categories. Similarly, other scholars found significant difference in gender, age, and geographic region (Azlan et al., 2020). There was significant difference in knowledge scores across genders, while(Elhadi et al., 2020) found the knowledge score of the students differed significantly with respect to age and current year of study.
Further, this study found that postgraduate students had significantly higher knowledge scores compared to undergraduate students. This is consistent with the finding of stated that Postgraduate students had significantly higher knowledge scores compared to undergraduate students(Olaimat et al., 2020). Regarding the presence of effective curative treatment and the mortality rate there is significant difference among different age groups, type of institutions, and the educational level they are studying. Finally, Public and private institution students have different knowledge on the main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, fatigue, dry and cough. On the other hand,(Olaimat et al., 2020) find that socio-demographic variables, including age, gender, students background location, accommodation type and place of residence were not significantly associated with the knowledge score. Conversely, findings show that knowledge scores were significantly different across genders, age groups, regions, occupation groups and income categories(Akalu et al., 2020). Particularly, they indicate that, higher knowledge scores were obtained among female participants and older people. also noticed that the percentage of the students with a good knowledge score increased as age is increasing (Olaimat et al., 2020).
The study of students’ knowledge, perception, and practices towards COVID-19 is important to understand the level of awareness and practices. It is also crucial to take actions that help to fight the epidemic. The majority of the respondents have access to water for washing, while the majority of them have no sufficient infrastructure for online learning, including internet, access to laptops, and/or smart-phone during COVID-19. Besides, television and radio, and social media are the most frequently used sources to obtain information about the pandemic. The practices related to wearing masks and washing hands regularly are promising and the general knowledge about COVID-19 is at a good level. However, it is not sufficient compared to the knowledge score of most of the countries identified form the literature. Some of the practices, knowledge, and perceptions are significantly different among gender, ages, types of institutions, and other demographic factors.
The KPP of students plays a great role in understanding student’s readiness towards the pandemic. It also supports the government to identify the misunderstanding among students about the virus and creating awareness to take prevention actions during the school. Therefore, the finding of this study helps the government to improve the KPP among students. The finding indicates that even though good knowledge, attitudes and practices is there among students, still it’s lower that the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the other countries. Therefore, the government should give more concentration to improve the KPP of students. The study also supports the ministry of science and higher education to identify the misunderstanding among students about the virus and creating awareness to take prevention actions during higher education opening. Moreover, the finding reveals that insufficient infrastructures are there for online learning, which makes students to involve on face to face learning frequently. Therefore, the government should try to fulfill infrastructures used for online learning, to shift some face to face learning to the online learning.
|
ANOVA |
Analysis of Variance |
|
AAU |
Addis Ababa University |
|
COVID-19 |
Corona virus Disease 2019 |
|
KMU |
Kotebe Metropolitan University |
|
KPP |
Knowledge, Perception and Practice |
|
PHD |
Doctor of Philosophy |
|
RVU |
Rift Valley University |
|
St.Dev: |
Standard Deviation |
|
TVET |
Technical vocational Education Training |
|
WHO |
World Health Organization |
Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was initially approved by the Kotebe Metropolitan University Research and Community Service research committee. Participation in the study was voluntary. All the necessary measures to safeguard participants’ anonymity and confidentiality of information were respected. Written Informed consent was obtained from all the participants.
Consent for publication: Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials: All data are within the manuscript and data available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
Competing interests: The author(s) declare that they have no competing interest.
Funding: Financial support for this study was funding support obtained from Kotebe Metropolitan Universities
Authors’ contributions: TW develop the concept of manuscript and designed the study. AK develops the method, data analysis and discussion. BN, GY and BC edited and approved the overall document. TW, AK and BN interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express our special gratitude to Kotebe Metropolitan University, who support the financial to conduct the research on KPP of students on challenge faced towards COVID-19 cases. Secondly, we would also like to thank staffs of Environmental Management department, Urban Transport Management department, Management Department, and our friends who helped us a lot to finalize this paper and give their helpful comment within the limited time frame.
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