Knowledge, attitude and practice of patients with chronic diseases towards COVID-19 pandemic in Dessie town hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Corona virus disease-19 first detected in China, December 2019. The government of Ethiopia takes preventive measures but the number of peoples infected with COVID-19 has been increased. Control of the pandemic requires changing of knowledge, attitude and practice of people. Hence, the objective of this study was to assess chronic disease patients’ knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Institution based cross-sectional study was done among 413 chronic disease patients from July 20 to August 5, 2020 in Dessie town hospitals. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used and significant association declared at p-value of <0.05. RESULTS: From the total participants 34.6%, 81.4% and 40.7% had good knowledge, attitude and practice while 35.1%, 12.1% and 24.7% had moderate knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. In multinomial logistic regression young age, urban residency, attainment of secondary education and presence of additional co-morbidity were predictors of moderate knowledge whereas urban residency, not attended formal education and presence of additional co-morbidity were predictors of good knowledge about COVID-19. Household family size and presence of additional co-morbidity were factors significantly associated with moderate practice of COVID-19 prevention methods. Furthermore, male sex, household family size, knowledge of COVID-19 and attitude towards COVID-19 were factors significantly associated with good practice of COVID-19 prevention methods. CONCLUSION: Significant number of chronic disease patients had poor knowledge and practice towards COVID-19. Therefore, government, health professionals, Medias, researchers and health institution should do to improve the gaps of chronic diseases patients.