Risk Management and Healthcare Policy (May 2023)
Assessing the Saudi Population Knowledge, Acceptance, and Perception on the Effectiveness of Following the Safety Precautions During COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract
Afnan Aljaffary,1 Alaa Al-Habib,1 Fatimah Al-Awami,1 Entesar Al-Askari,1 Rawan Aljaffary2 1Health Information Management and Technology Department, College of Public Health, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia; 2Revenue Development department, Saud Al Babtain Cardiac Centre, Dammam, Saudi ArabiaCorrespondence: Afnan Aljaffary, Email [email protected]: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become an alarming issue worldwide. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was fast in adopting the safety precaution measures and is considered one of the major countries that place preventive precautions measures to control the spread of the disease. The current study aims to assess the knowledge, effectiveness, and acceptance of the public regarding COVID-19 safety precautions measures: face masks, physical distance, wash hands/use hand sanitizer, and the use of Tawakkalna application as a preventive measure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Methods: The study design was quantitative cross-sectional using a self-administered questionnaire.Results: Of the 400 received responses, the data analysis showed that there was a significant association between knowledge about the safety precaution measures score with nationality and gender with P value less than 0.05.Conclusion: The awareness of Saudi citizens of the importance of implementing preventive precautions and their compliance greatly contributed in limiting the virus spread.Keywords: COVID-19, public perceptions, knowledge, acceptance
