A total of 707 participants completed the survey questionnaire (response rate = 97.3%) and participated in this study with a mean age of 25.03 (SD: 4.26) years. The majority of the participants were male (n = 404, 57.1%), unmarried (n = 506, 71.61%), 554 (78.4%) had at least a Bachelor's degree, and rest of the participants had an education level of Higher secondary or below. Among the respondents 426 (60.3%) were students and 127 (18.0%) were employed either with the govt. /a private company. Most of the participants were from urban area (n = 455, 64.4%) in Dhaka division (n = 319, 45.1%). A detail of the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants is shown in Table 1. Social media such as Facebook was the main source of information about COVID-19 among participants (n = 498, 70.4%) followed by News media (e.g., News channel, Newspaper) (67%) and health organization’s website (58%, Figure 1).
Knowledge
The mean Covid-19 knowledge score for participants was 8.5 (SD: 2.6 range 0–13). Participant's overall correct answer rate of this knowledge test was between 30.7 to 94.6%. About 61.2% of the participants scored 80% or more and considered having adequate knowledge. A higher proportion of the participants (n = 646, 91.4%) was identified common clinical symptoms of COVID-19, and wearing a face mask is an effective way to prevent transmission of COVID-19 (n = 632, 89.4%). Besides, people should avoid going to crowded places and avoid taking public transportations (n = 629, 89.0%). However, noticeable confusion was found among participants regarding the mode of transmission of COVID-19 and only 38.0% of participants correctly reposed that COVID-19 virus is not airborne and very few (n = 306, 43.3%) were able to respond correctly when asked if eating and touching wild animals could result in infection (Table 2). Participant’s knowledge scores significantly differed across age-groups, genders, education levels, socio-economic classes, and residence places (𝑝 < 0.05, Table 3). Regression analysis had done to reveal factors associated with adequate knowledge of the participants and found that female participants had higher odds of having adequate knowledge (vs. male, OR: 2.75, 95% CI = 1.82-3.45, 𝑝 = 0.000). Similarly, participants who had a master degree and above (vs. secondary and blow, OR: 2.52, 95% CI = 1.35-4.67, 𝑝 = 0.003) and belongs to an urban area (vs. rural, OR: 3.02, 95% CI = 2.12-4.01, 𝑝 = 0.000) had higher odds of having adequate knowledge than other counterparts (Table 4).
Attitude
When participants were asked question regarding attitudes on COVID-19 found that majority of the participants had a positive attitude towards COVID-19 (n = 558, 78.9%) with mean attitude score 2.7 (SD: 0.3). About 87% (614) of the participants agreed that COVID-19 would successfully be controlled with the rate of reporting “disagree” and “not sure” was 4.2% and 8.9% respectively. When participants asked whether Bangladesh was handling the COVID-19 health crisis well most of the participants (n = 595, 84.2%) agreed with this statement with rates of disagreement and uncertainty were at 5.8% and 10%. However, 55.3% (n = 391) believed that COVID-19 is a deadly disease when asked about the severity of the disease. Even so, participants were optimistic that self-awareness is necessary to remain free from COVID-19 with an 80.1% agreement (Figure 2). There found a statistically significant association between attitude and socio-demographic variables such as age groups, marital status, education level, and place of residence (𝑝 < 0.05, Table 3). Participants age-groups 30 years or more (vs. 18-23 years, OR: 2.00, 95% CI = 1.18-2.78, 𝑝 = 0.006), belongs to high socio-economic class (vs. low, OR: 1.50, 95% CI = 1.01-2.23, 𝑝 = 0.024) and having adequate knowledge (vs. poor, OR: 6.41, 95% CI = 2.34-25.56, 𝑝 = 0.000) were more likely to have positive attitude (Table 4).
Practices
In terms of practices towards COVID-19 among participants found that 75.2% (n = 532) always washed hands with soap or hand-sanitizer thoroughly and up to 70.6% (n = 499) always wore a mask when going outside the home in recent days. Even though 33.9% (n = 240) and 14.6 (n = 130) of participants reported “occasionally” and “never” maintained safe distance with people (3 feet) when going outside the home. Meanwhile, only 62.1% (n = 439) of participants avoided gone to any crowded place with a rate of reporting “occasionally” and “never” was 30.0% and 7.9% respectively. The overall mean practice score of the participants was 2.5 (SD: 0.4) with only 51.6% (n = 365) had a good practice on COVID-19. Participant's mean practice score was significantly different in terms of gender, education level, socio-economic class, and place of residence (𝑝 < 0.05, Table 3). Multivariate analysis showed that participants with age group 30 years or more (vs. 18-23 years, OR: 3.23, 95% CI = 2.13-6.57, 𝑝 = 0.005), gender status female (vs. male, OR: 3.23, 95% CI = 2.13-6.57, 𝑝 = 0.005) with occupation govt. /private job (vs. business, OR: 4.82, 95% CI = 1.45–17.23, 𝑝 = 0.003) and resided in urban area (vs. rural, OR: 5.42, 95% CI = 2.32-18.71, 𝑝 = 0.000) and having adequate knowledge (vs. poor, OR: 8.93, 95% CI = 3.92- 38.42, 𝑝 = 0.000) were more likely to have good practices (Table 4).