Development of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
During this COVID-19 pandemic, massive unverified information has flooded the social media platforms, causing heightened levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among public. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) an...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2020
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16286/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16286/1/23_ms0451_pdf_17090.pdf |
| Summary: | During this COVID-19 pandemic, massive unverified information has flooded
the social media platforms, causing heightened levels of anxiety and depressive
symptoms among public. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between
the COVID-19 related knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) and its psychological
impact, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms in Malaysia population. A crosssectional
online survey was conducted from 8th to 22nd April 2020, involving 227
respondents. The set of questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics,
the KAP questionnaire – 11 items on knowledge (K1-K11), 3 items on attitude (A1-
A3), 4 items on practice (P1-P4), together with Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Scale. To evaluate the data, descriptive
analysis, Chi-square test and item response theory analysis were implemented.
The percentage of respondents who answered the true statements items from
Knowledge component (K1-K3) correctly was almost 100%. However, that of
items testing on COVID-19 myths (K4-K11) ranged from 38.8% to 95.2%. The only
item from Attitude component which had less than 95% being answered correctly
was A1 (78.9%), regarding face masks usage. From the Practice component, over
80% of respondents identified that they used social media to obtain updates on
COVID-19 all the time. This is alarming as most of the information circulating on
social media have not been verified by relevant authorities, which might lead to,
and continuously reinforce anxiety-inducing myths. This study showed that lower
overall KAP scores, particularly for Knowledge component items, are related to
higher anxiety levels and more depressive symptoms. |
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