PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (Sep 2020)

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to Coronavirus disease 2019 during the outbreak among workers in China: A large cross-sectional study.

  • Zhi-Hao Li,
  • Xi-Ru Zhang,
  • Wen-Fang Zhong,
  • Wei-Qi Song,
  • Zheng-He Wang,
  • Qing Chen,
  • Dan Liu,
  • Qing-Mei Huang,
  • Dong Shen,
  • Pei-Liang Chen,
  • Ang Mao,
  • Duo Zhang,
  • Xingfen Yang,
  • Xian-Bo Wu,
  • Chen Mao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008584
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 9
p. e0008584

Abstract

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recently emerged as a global threat. Understanding workers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding this new infectious disease is crucial to preventing and controlling it. This study aimed to assess KAP regarding COVID-19 during the outbreak among workers in China. The present study was part of a cross-sectional online survey study conducted based on a large labor-intensive factory, which has 180,000 workers from various Chinese provinces, from 2 February 2020 to 7 February 2020. KAP related to COVID-19 were measured by 32 items, each item was measured with an agree/disagree/unclear format, and only correct responses were given 1 point. KAP regarding COVID-19 were measured with 20 items, 6 items and 6 items, respectively. A total of 123,768 valid responses (68.8%) were included in the analysis. Generally, the levels of knowledge (mean: 16.3 out of 20 points), attitudes (mean: 4.5 out of 6 points), and practices (mean: 5.8 out of 6 points) related to COVID-19 were high. Only 36,373 respondents (29.4%) disagreed that gargling with salt water is effective in protecting against COVID-19. Moreover, older respondents had decreased levels of knowledge and practices related to COVID-19 (both P values for the trend <0.001), while better-educated respondents had increased levels of knowledge and practices related to COVID-19 (both P values for the trend <0.001). These results suggest that Chinese workers are highly aware of COVID-19, but health authorities still need to provide correct information on COVID-19 prevention and strengthen health interventions, particularly for older and less-educated workers.