Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 out-break was first reported in Wuhan City, China in early December 2019. It was declared a pan-demic by WHO in March 2020. This study aimed at assessing the knowledge, awareness, and at-titudes of the general population in Saudi Ara-bia towards COVID-19, as well as its adherence to preventive measures and its willingness to take the vaccine.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study involved an online sample of 7,188 participants (from five regions of Saudi Arabia) who completed a self-administered on-line-based questionnaire. They were recruited from 23 November 2020 to 29 November 2020 based on the nonprobability convenience sam-pling method. The self-administered question-naire comprised four main sections: gathering information about participants' demographics, knowledge and awareness of COVID-19, partici-pants' practices (hygiene and other) against in-fection, and vaccine acceptability.
RESULTS: More than half of the study partici-pants were knowledgeable about COVID-19. The mean scores were 10.4 (SD=3.44, range: 0-18 - with high scores indicating better knowledge or awareness) for knowledge and 6.1 (SD=2.26, range: 0-11) for awareness, indicating a need for more educational campaigns to improve the level of knowledge and awareness among the Saudi Arabian population about COVID-19. The mean score for attitude was 5 (SD=1.67, range: 0-8 - from 0=very pessimistic to 8=very optimis-tic), indicating moderate optimism. As for prac-tices, the mean score was 7.8 (SD=1.57, range: 0-10), indicating good practices to prevent or control infection. Concerning acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine, 63.8% of the participants agreed to take the vaccine if it was proven to be 95% effective.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study can help us designing effective measures against COVID-19 infections. Our results highlight the best practices adopted by the Saudi Arabian population, as well as those areas requiring im-provement, including knowledge, attitudes, and practices against this disease.