Risk Management and Healthcare Policy (Sep 2020)
Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Regarding COVID-19 Among Chronic Illness Patients at Outpatient Departments in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Abstract
Giao Huynh,1 Minh Quan Nguyen,2 Thien Thuan Tran,1 Van Tap Nguyen,1 Truong Vien Nguyen,1 Thi Hoai Thuong Do,1 Phi Hong Ngan Nguyen,3 Thi Hoai Yen Phan,1 Thanh Thuy Vu,3 Thi Ngoc Han Nguyen4 1Faculty of Public Health, University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 2Department of Scientific Research, Thu Duc District Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 3Department of Scientific Research, District 2 Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 4Infection Control Department, University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamCorrespondence: Minh Quan NguyenThu Duc District Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamTel +84989777722Email [email protected] HuynhUniversity of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, 217 Hong Bang Street, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamTel +84 908608338Email [email protected]: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a major threat to human life around the world. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding COVID-19 among people with chronic diseases at the outpatient departments in Ho Chi Minh City.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out between February and March 2020 using a convenience sampling strategy in three hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) via the use of a structured self-administered questionnaire. Factors relating to practices, prevalence ratio (PR), and 95% confidence interval were estimated by using the Poisson regression with robust options. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically different.Results: A total of 522 participants had a mean age of 51.5 ± 10.6 years. Most of them reported seeing information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic (93.7%) via television and social media (72.8% and 62.1%, respectively). Just over two-thirds of the participants (68.4%) answered with sufficient knowledge of COVID-19. Most respondents had a positive attitude toward COVID-19 (90.8%), although some misconceptions existed. Almost over three-fourths of them (77.2%) maintained good practices for prevention. The rate of good practices in those who had sufficient knowledge was 1.24 times greater than that among those who had insufficient knowledge (PR 1.24, 95% CI: 1.10– 1.41, P< 0.05). Also, the rate of good practices in males was lower than that of females (PR: 0.91, 95% CI: 0.83– 0.99, P< 0.05).Conclusion: There still exists an amount of insufficient knowledge and negative attitude regarding COVID-19, which may be barriers to good prevention practices among chronic illness patients. Education programs need to continue via television and social media and emphasize that people with chronic diseases are more likely to experience severe symptoms, including death from COVID-19. Additionally, management authorities should prolong specific policies to protect the more vulnerable in our community.Keywords: knowledge, attitude, practice, COVID-19, chronic disease
