Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic in a Population Under Community-Wide Containment Measures in Southern Thailand

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had a significant impact on public health and the socioeconomic system. While governments established community-wide containment measures to prevent further transmission, the number of patients continued to increase. For a better COVID-19 outbreak response, there is a need to better understand communities’ knowledge, attitudes and practices toward COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: Our main objective is to describe knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19 in a population under community-wide containment measures. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Eligible participants affected by community-wide containment measures living in southern Thailand were included. A convenience sampling strategy was used to include the participants. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used in this study. We developed an online self-administered Thai-language questionnaire that included the respondents’ demographic profiles and questions regarding their knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19. Piloting the questionnaire was performed in a small sample at Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat. RESULTS: In total, 717 subjects were included in this study. Regarding the knowledge and practice assessments, most respondents knew about COVID-19 by browsing websites. The respondents were confident in their knowledge, understood the situation causing the COVID-19 outbreak and knew how to prevent it. However, there were still misunderstandings. Regarding the attitude assessment, only 56.4% (405/717) of the subjects scored greater than or equal to 80%. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 misunderstandings render disease outbreaks more difficult to control. These misunderstandings may result from outdated or inaccurate online information. It is essential to gain knowledge from a reliable source for proper understanding.