Abstract
The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a worldwide impact on public health. 1 The appropriate preventive measures such as health programs have led to good health behavior practices, reduced anxiety, and increased preparedness among the community. 2 Considering the importance of information dissemination to curb transmission of the disease, it seems essential to evaluate the level of COVID-19 knowledge and the community’s preventive behavior during the outbreak.
A national cross-sectional study was conducted during the Movement Control Order period from May to August 2020 in Malaysia. The survey was conducted using a tool that was adapted from the World Health Organization. 3 The study showed that a high percentage of the respondents claimed that their knowledge level of the novel coronavirus and ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were high. The mean score of their knowledge and perceived self-efficacy were also high.
With regard to the preventive behavior measures recommended by the government, most of the respondents claimed that hand washing for 20 seconds, wearing a face mask, use of hand disinfectant, avoid touching eyes, nose, and mouth, cover mouth when coughing, staying home when sick, and not travelling abroad are the effective preventive measures to prevent the spread of the disease. The same finding (>90%) was also found with adherence to the preventive behavior measures. However, less than half of the participants believed social distancing, self-quarantine, and avoiding crowded places were effective preventive measures. Nevertheless, the adherence to these measures was higher but not for avoiding crowded places (38.0%).
Practicing preventive behaviors is voluntary in nature and ensuring adherence to these measures requires great efforts. Social distancing measures avoiding places where many people gather were hardly adhered. Social distancing measures are imposing lifestyles changes, which are against most peoples’ social norms, mainly in the adolescents group. 2 More than half of the younger respondents were found to be not in compliance with social distancing measures. Social distancing required the strongest influential factors, such as wanting to protect themselves, their family members, and being able to communicate remotely. 4
In addition, a study during the earlier period of the pandemic in Malaysia reported that 83% of the participants were avoiding crowded places with only 51% reported to wear a face mask. 5 This result was quite expected as compared with the current study. It could be due to the lack of belief that the face mask could protect them, resulting in its low compliance compared with the later stage of the pandemic. However, due to a long period of movement control order and the continuing outbreak, there was probably a psychological impact that may influence the adherence to preventive behaviors. 6
The study showed that there had been good dissemination of COVID-19 information to the Malaysian population. Knowledge and self-efficacy were the most significant factors in predicting a person’s preventive behaviors. Enhancing preventive measure, particularly the social distancing measures, should be emphasized as it contributes largely to reducing the transmission of the novel coronavirus disease. Informative and timely public health messages help increase adherence to preventive behaviors against the COVID-19 disease.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all participants involved in this study and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia of their approval to conduct this study.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was not supported by any Grant.
