Knowledge and practice on Covid-19 : a practicum on Covid-19 preventive knowledge and practice among the male and female students from 6th-9th standards of schools and from equivalent grade levels of madrasas in sadar and Pekua upazillas of Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh

Abstract

Introduction: With the establishment of COVID-19 vaccination program for young and adult population, community’s resilience on COVID-19 prevent measures are still being crucial. After reopening of school and educational institutions, these congregational places become potential arena for disease transmission and outbreak of infection. The community members particularly students themselves, teachers and parents are the critical persons in participation of collaborative efforts for acquiring of knowledge and practice are of utmost importance in COVID-19 prevention. The ultimate aim of this study is to assess students’ knowledge and practice concerning COVID-19 prevention in Cox’ Bazar of Bangladesh. Methodology: This study utilized the primary data set of a cross-sectional study conducted from mid-November 2022 to December 2022, to the male and female students (Grade 6th- 9th and equivalent) at purposively selected schools and madrasas of Cox’s Bazar Sadar and Pekua Upzailas of Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh. Results: Among 2255 students analyzed, 555 (69.12% of total male students) of male students 1055 (72.66 % of total female students) of female students have good knowledge and practice level on COVID-19 preventive measures in compared to the rest of the students. The students revealed a good understanding of the mode of transmission, symptoms, preventive measures, handwashing knowledge and practice, wearing of masks and vaccination status with the correct response rate of 90%. There was a statistically significant association between the knowledge level of students and location (p < 0.05), type of institutions (p < 0.05), only male in age (p <0 .005), classes (p <0 .05), education of father (p < 0.05), education of mother (p < 0.05) and source of information (p < 0.05) as stated by Chi-squared test results. Moreover, the Chi-square test also showed the statistically significant association between practice level of students and location in female (p < 0.05), age (p < 0.05), classes (p < 0.05), education of father (p < 0.05), education of mother (p < 0.05) and source of information (p < 0.05). In knowledge, the students had higher odds of having good knowledge except in association with their social demographic characters (AOR: >1, p < 0.05) except in Pekua (AOR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.37– 0.59, p < 0.05) and male of class 7 (AOR:0.78, 95%CI:0.59-1.04, p<0.05). In practice, the students had good practice with their sociodemographic background except in Pekua (AOR:0.57, 95%CI: 0.46-0.71, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: This study revealed that knowledge levels are 69.12% for male and 72.66% for female while adherence to the practice were 68.87% and 69.70% on COVID-19 preventive measures respectively. Health education forums such as school information sessions and SBCC sessions in collaboration among program implementers, teachers and parents should pay great attention to enhance the students’ understanding about prevention and transmission to reinforce their capacity of preventing the family members and themselves from COVID-19 infection.