key: cord-0836646-ocbzahvu authors: Sayedahmed, Ahmed Mahmoud Sayed; Abdalla, Abubakr Abdalla Abubakr; Khalid, Mohamed Hafiz Mohamed title: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding COVID-19 among Sudanese Population during the Early Days of the Pandemic: Online Cross-sectional Survey date: 2020-11-29 journal: Sci Afr DOI: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00652 sha: 4bef702bf84e046718a4a6522bac37eba3e704e9 doc_id: 836646 cord_uid: ocbzahvu BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus strain. The first case of the disease was reported as pneumonia of unknown cause in late December 2019, in Wuhan, China, and then the disease started to spread to other countries. This study aimed to assess the knowledge attitude and practice of the Sudanese population toward Covid-19. METHODS: This cross-sectional online study was conducted among the Sudanese population. The Data was collected by using a self-administered online survey, the survey was in Arabic language and we tested it before sthe distribution. The data collection period was started from 31 March to 3 April 2020. We used an appropriate statistical test and a P-value of <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULT: About 62% of the respondents were females, and 55.1% aged 12 – 24 years. Our study determined that 68.3% of the study participants had a good knowledge toward COVID-19, and the majority (96.4%) knew that the COVID-19 is transmitted through droplets, while 89.9% of the participants had a positive attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, only 48.5% of the participants had a good practice toward COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that good knowledge is significantly associated with good practice. CONCLUSION: Our participants had good knowledge, and positive attitude toward the COVID-19. Our findings revealed that education is positively associated with knowledge, and good level of knowledge is associated with good practice toward COVID-19. Efforts should focus more to raise the awareness among the less educated people. In Sudan, according We received responses from 1718 participants. About 1066 (62%) of the respondents were females, and 946 (55.1%) aged 12 -24 years. Other socio-demographic data were presented in Table 1 . Our study determined that 1173 (68.3%) of the study participants had a good knowledge toward COVID-19 (answered more than 75% in the knowledge assessment section). About 1656 (96.4%) of the participants, knew that the virus is transmitted through droplets ( Table 2) . Our study showed that 1545 (89.9%) of the participants had a positive attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic (got more than 75% in the attitude assessment section). About 1703 (99.1%) of the participants, were agreed that COVID-19 will be successfully controlled (Table 3) . Our study determined that 834 (48.5%) of the study participants had a good practice toward the COVID-19 pandemic (got more than 80% in the practice assessment section). About 426 (24.8) of the participants never avoided crowded spaces (Table 4 ). Our study revealed that education was associated with knowledge about COVID-19; participants with secondary school or lower educational levels were less likely to had good knowledge about COVID-19. Also, we found that doctors were more likely to had good knowledge about COVID-19 (AOR = 0.136 95% CI: 0.072, 0.255) ( Table 5 ). Our study revealed that doctors were more likely to have a positive attitude toward COVID-19 pandemic (AOR = 0.268 95% CI: 0.115, 0.627). The study also showed that study participants who have good knowledge were more likely to have positive attitude toward the pandemic (AOR = 0.613 95% CI: 0.436, 0.861) ( Table 6 ). Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitude of Egyptians Towards the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Advice for public COVID-19 Map -Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China Community Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). (n.d.) Disease Awareness and Prevention Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it Practices of Health Care Workers at Makerere University Teaching Hospitals, Uganda. Frontiers in Public Health Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation. (n.d.). Retrieved A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among Chinese residents during the rapid rise period of the COVID-19 outbreak: a quick online cross-sectional survey The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. Availability of data and material: All the raw data are available.