Development of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia

Abstract

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.