Arina Anis Azlan|Mohammad Rezal Hamzah|Tham Jen Sern|Suffian Hadi Ayub|Emma Mohamad
Public knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19: A cross-sectional study in Malaysia
National University of Malaysia|Universiti Malaysia Perlis|Universiti Putra Malaysia|Sunway University|National University of Malaysia
effort mitigate outbreak covid19 many countries imposed drastic lockdown movement control shelter place orders residents effectiveness mitigation measures highly dependent cooperation compliance members society knowledge attitudes practices people hold toward disease play integral role determining societys readiness accept behavioural change measures health authorities aim study determine knowledge levels attitudes practices toward covid19 among malaysian public crosssectional online survey 4850 malaysian residents conducted 27th march 3rd april 2020 survey instrument consisted demographic characteristics 13 items knowledge 3 items attitudes 3 items practices modified previously published questionnaire covid19 descriptive statistics chisquare tests ttests oneway analysis variance anova conducted overall correct rate knowledge questionnaire 805 participants held positive attitudes toward successful control covid19 831 ability malaysia conquer disease 959 way malaysian government handling crisis 899 participants also taking precautions avoiding crowds 834 practising proper hand hygiene 878 week movement control order started however wearing face masks less common 512 survey among first assess knowledge attitudes practice response covid19 pandemic malaysia results highlight importance consistent messaging health authorities government well need tailored health education programs improve levels knowledge attitudes practices