Influence of the level of education on women's knowledge, attitude, and practices to control the transmission of COVID-19 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Adequate knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) can reduce its spread and may also be useful in preventing and controlling the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (ARS-CoV-2) in the community. This study examines the influence of women's education level on COVID-19 KAP behaviour in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This study uses COVID-19 data obtained from the Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) in Kinshasa, the DRC's capital city. Data were collected through telephone interviews held in June 2020 with a representative sample of 1773 women aged 15–49 years. Data were then analysed using multiple probit regression and marginal effects techniques. To address possible sample selection bias due to the use of a telephone to recruit participants, the data were adjusted to account for the selectivity due to telephone number ownership through inverse probability weighting. In general, the results of this study indicate no statistically significant difference in the influence of the level of education on women's KAP to control the transmission of COVID-19 in the DRC, women with higher levels of education are not found to always exhibit improved knowledge, attitude, or practices of appropriate strategies for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in the DRC. The results also indicate that education can have both positive and negative influences in alleviating the burden of COVID-19.