Community Level of COVID-19 Information Exposure and Influencing Factors in Northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging respiratory infection, and the crisis has become a worldwide issue, and society has become concerned in various aspects. Good information exposure related to transmission, prevention, and risk factors of COVID-19 can be the best means to reduce the risk of disease exposure and mitigate further spread. The countries that have well practiced this strategy (society information exposure) were controlling disease progression, but there is a low practice in sub-Saharan countries, including Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the information exposure level about COVID-19 and influencing factors among northwest community of Ethiopia. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Community-based cross-sectional study design was employed among the community of Gondar city from April 20 to 27, 2020. A total of 623 study participants were involved in this interview, and a systematic sampling technique was applied to select the households. Data were entered into EpiData version 4.6 and then exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. A multivariable binary logistic regression was employed to identify factors associated with good information exposure about COVID-19. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was estimated to show the strength of association. A p-value <0.05 was a cut-off point to declare statistical significance. RESULTS: The overall rate of information exposure about COVID-19 was 44.9%. Age 18–26 years [AOR=0.53; 95% CI (0.28–0.99)] and 34–45 years [AOR=0.44; 95% CI (0.24–0.80)], elementary school [AOR=2.48; 95% CI (1.20–5.15)], secondary school [AOR=3.98; 95% CI (1.99–7.99)], college and above [AOR=8.38; 95% CI (4.10–17.26)], browsed or follow social media [AOR=2.21; 95% CI (1.44–3.38)] and those having a discussion with their family members [AOR=2.37; 95% CI (1.44–3.90)] and friends [AOR=2.15; 95% CI (1.38–3.34)] were the factors significantly associated with good information exposure towards COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Communities total level of good information exposure from different information platforms about COVID-19 in this study area remains low. Age, high level of education, browsing social media, and those having interpersonal (family and friends) discussion were the factors that significantly influence communities who have good information exposure related to COVID-19. Therefore, efforts on community mobilization through regional/national mass media and other information conveying platforms are recommended.