Do knowledge and attitudes matter for preventive behavioral practices toward the COVID-19? A cross-sectional online survey among the adult population in Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh has adopted several non-therapeutic measures to tackle the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. However, the curve of COVID-19 positive cases has not significantly flattened yet, as the adoption of preventive measures by the general population is predominantly a behavioral phenomenon that is often influenced by people's knowledge and attitudes. This study aimed to assess the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 and their interrelationships among the population of Bangladesh aged 18 years and above. This study adopted a web-based cross-sectional survey design and collected data from 1056 respondents using the online platform Google Form. We employed the independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's product-moment correlation, and Spearman rank-order correlation to produce the bivariate level statistics. We also run multiple linear and logistic regression models to identify the factors affecting knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19. The respondents had an average knowledge score of 17.29 (Standard Deviation (SD) = 3.30). The average score for attitude scale toward COVID-19 was 13.6 (SD = 3.7). The respondents had excellent preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 (mean 7.7, SD = 0.72). However, this study found that knowledge and attitudes did not matter for preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19. Instead, education appeared as a sole predictor for preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19; that means preventive behavioral practices toward COVID-19 was lower among the less educated respondents. This study suggests increasing education as a long-term strategy and taking immediate action to increase knowledge and decrease negative attitudes toward COVID-19 through targeted health education initiatives as a short-term strategy.