Magnitude and Associated Factors for Attitude and Practice Toward COVID-19 and Its Prevention Among the Residents of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 first broke out in China, Hubei province on December 29, 2019, since then it took hundreds of thousand lives worldwide. Although all countries are taking varying degrees of measures to curb the dissemination, the virus is still spreading rapidly in all parts of the world. Adherence of people for COVID-19 precaution measures is one of the most important factors which determine the effectiveness of curbing the spread. However, without having a good attitude, the adherence of people toward precaution measures could be challenging. Therefore, this study aims to assess the attitude, practice, and associated factors of Gedeo zone of Southern Ethiopia region residents toward COVID-19 and its prevention. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 600 Gedeo zone residents of Southern Ethiopia. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression were used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. An adjusted odds ratio with 95% CI was used to show the strength of association. P-value<0.05 was used to decide a statistically significant association. RESULTS: Most of the study participants (90.3%) have a good attitude toward COVID-19 and its prevention. Being a younger age group (AOR=3.82, 95% CI=1.76–19.07), having a diploma and above (AOR=2.53, 95% CI=1.15–7.50), having a chronic medical illness (AOR=2.73, 95% CI=1.01–7.44), and using television/radio as a source of information (AOR=2.65, 95% CI=1.27–5.54) were significantly associated with a good attitude toward COVID-19. On the other hand, only 20% of the study participants had good practice toward COVID-19 prevention. Educational status (P-value=0.00), occupation (P-value=0.01), and having a chronic medical illness (P-value=0.03), and use of religious teaching as information sources (P-value=0.02) were among the factors associated with good practice toward COVID-19 infection. CONCLUSION: We conclude that, despite the presence of a good attitude in the majority of respondents, much work is needed to improve the poor practice of COVID-19 preventive measures.