Until now, the number of COVID–19 infections has been increasing, but in some countries, the rate of infections has decreasing, and in others, there has been no new infections. The general public in Indonesia is vulnerable to the fast transmission of COVID–19 if they are not properly informed. Age is a concern, especially the elderly with co-morbidities, but not all elderly people understand and want to get information about preventing COVID–19 transmission.
The elderly group is more vulnerable, but this group does not have sufficient access to the available information. Conversely, because the young age group has access to information from various sources, they can easily afford to obtain correct information about COVID–19 [7,13].
COVID–19 is distributed throughout all regions in Indonesia, including the three regions with the highest prevalence: DKI Jakarta, East Java, and West Java. The other regions experienced an increase in COVID–19 cases, but the rate was not as fast as it was in these three regions [5]. It is expected that the public can comply with the various information and regulations issued by the government, but even if they do so, the prevalence rate will continue to increase, and this means that several factors are influencing the knowledge and attitudes of the general public in Indonesia. In this study, we considered the problems acting as obstacles to the affirmation of attitudes that facilitate the prevention of COVID–19 transmission.
Based on this study, the majority of women paid more attention when filling out the questionnaire compared to men. This might also have affected changing attitudes toward preventing COVID transmission. In this study, we also showed that it is easier for employees to obtain information and change their attitudes. In previous studies, younger people were found to more easily change their attitudes [2,7,14].
The most widely used sources of information are television and social media, with the highest being television. At present, social media plays an important role as a source of information, but it appears that television is considered a source of true and trustworthy information by the general public in Indonesia. Other studies have shown that, conversely, social media ranks first as a source of knowledge [12,14]. This is likely due to social media providing information more quickly, allowing for the free disclosure of information, and varying without broadcasting censorship. Its only drawback is that not all of the information disseminated is credible because it is publicized without any assessment of its truth.
The findings in this study are relevant for the evaluation of the knowledge of the general public. We found that the percentage of incorrect answers was the highest for questions pertaining to the actions that need to be taken when experiencing COVID–19 symptoms. Most respondents answered that an infected person should be taken to the authorities instead of to the hospital. Thus, from this error, we found that COVID–19 infection has led to a new perspective, i.e., that this very rapid spread requires decisive action, especially from the police. It is interesting that some people do not focus on the disease or symptoms that arise, but rather on how to prevent someone who has COVID–19 from transmitting it to others. Sometimes, someone who has tested positive for COVID–19 does not want to be hospitalized because they think that the disease is very contagious, but they often unconsciously transmit the virus. Things like this ultimately make the police intervene, and this also disturbs the general public.
There is another question relevant to increasing immunity. Among others, the right answer is sunbathing, but a wrong answer was often given, for example, consuming more carbohydrates and drinking cold water. Sunlight can activate vitamin D under the skin and is reported to increase body immunity. Some previous studies link vitamin D and infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, and report that vitamin D is associated with an improvement in the clinical symptoms of the disease [15–17].
One of the questions that shows the general public’s ignorance is the main cause of exposure to COVID–19. A small portion of the respondents selected air and food. These two were possible answers to the question concerning COVID–19 transmission, but coughing or sneezing are more accurate answers. Previous studies reported that not all respondents gave correct answers about how this virus can spread [12,14]. Our evaluation of the knowledge of the respondents showed that there are three main problems with the general public’s knowledge of COVID–19. These problems pertain to action when symptoms are found in cases of COVID–19 infection, ways to increase immunity, and the main cause of exposure to COVID–19 in a person.
Based on the respondents’ attitudes toward COVID–19 infection, we found that people have the worst attitude regarding keeping a distance of 1.5 m from others, exercising and eating nutritious food, and wearing a mask when gathering with others. This is likely because the respondents have not experienced the conditions of the COVID–19 pandemic. Social distancing actions and quarantine situations produce major changes in the social fabric of countries, and this does not change quickly. However, previous studies reported that people agreed with the avoidance of transmission and strongly agreed with the isolation process and the need for an available vaccine [12]. Previous studies also reported that not all people agreed with the measures to prevent COVID–19 transmission, such as washing their nose with saline, gargling, and taking antibiotics [14].
Maintaining a distance of 1.5 m from other people is difficult to implement according to respondents from the general public. Changing this attitude is difficult, especially for people engaged in many social activities, such as shopping centers, parties, or education centers. The need for this change, which requires time, caused some respondents to disagree with the distance limitation.
The attitude that people still do not approve of is the attitude of exercising and eating nutritious food. This attitude is not considered to be directly related to COVID–19 infection, so people often do not approve of it. The body’s immunity increases with proper nutrition. Previous studies mentioned several food sources that can provide immunomodulatory effects, and respondents agreed with the benefits of these herbal foods [18,19].
Some respondents still did not approve of wearing a mask when gathering with others. The use of masks is important for preventing COVID–19 transmission, as the main source of transmission is coughing or sneezing. This might also be due to it being unusual to cover the mouth and nose with a mask or due to the unavailability of masks. This attitude needs to be scrutinized and used as a basis for establishing a COVID–19 transmission prevention policy.
Knowledge is an important factor for forming one’s attitudes, but this is not absolute because various factors influence a person’s knowledge and attitudes. Attitudes are also not the only factor pertaining to changes in one’s lifestyle because there are other actions that can cause lifestyle changes. An attitude is a reaction of a person to stimulus. It is a predisposition to action and a readiness to react to certain environmental objects. Based on previous research, a relationship exists between knowledge and attitudes in dealing with the COVID–19 pandemic [6,12,20,21].
A correlation between knowledge and attitudes was found in this study. It is a very weak correlation, but it is hoped that it will lead to the uncovering of the cause of community disobedience in preventing COVID–19 transmission one month after the COVID–19 infection was reported in Indonesia. If this can be explored and developed in larger research studies, then the number of COVID–19 cases in Indonesia may be suppressed.
This study has a limitation: not all of the respondents in the red zone area were able to fill out a questionnaire, but we hope that the results presented in this study regarding the knowledge and attitudes of the general public can describe those of the actual population. The results of this study are expected to be further developed with more in-depth research on knowledge and attitudes, especially knowledge and attitudes that are still not understood by most of the general public.