Role of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Among the General Population of Saudi Arabia in Management of Second Wave of COVID-19

The highly infectious corona virus disease, described as a pandemic by the WHO, has been the focus of intense discussion world-wide due to its unpredictable nature and impact. The present study was undertaken to assess the health behavior of individuals as a result of their knowledge, attitudes and practice, which are important in containing the spread of such a pandemic in the community with anticipated future outcomes.

This study was carried out to explore the influence of KAP of the Saudi population from Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Medina, Abha, Qassim and other cities of KSA towards the second wave of the pandemic spike, and determine the acceptance of the population of changed behavioral measures.

About 90.2% of the respondents had strong knowledge and awareness about COVID-19 where as 80.7% showed positive attitudes, with a mean score of 29.52 ± 2.591 and 59.4% following good practices. About 75.5% of respondents regularly washed their hands, 73.7% used sanitizers effectively every time after touching some surface and 86.8% affirmed using masks regularly.

The present data showed that irrespective of gender, age group, nationality, education level and occupation, majority of the population had adequate knowledge and positive attitude. However, it was found that good knowledge and positive attitude may not always culminate into good practice as evident from the study. This reflects that irrespective of the shortcomings, the Saudi government was successful in propagating right information across all sections of the society. The findings give valuable insight to policy makers and health officials to pinpoint gaps in these areas and bolster ongoing efforts to contain the pandemic and sustain the preventive measures implemented as part of the future strategic planning.