Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 among Palestinians during the COVID-19 outbreak: A cross-sectional survey

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious illness that spreads rapidly through human-to-human transmission. On March 5, the government of Palestine declared a state of emergency in order to curb the spread of the virus, a declaration that it extended for a fifth time on July 5 ^th . The degree to which a population complies with corresponding safety measures is surely affected by the people’s knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards the disease. To explore this hypothesis, we gathered data from 1,731 Palestinians between April 19 ^th and May 1 ^st , 2020 through a KAP questionnaire. The participant pool represented a stratified sample of Palestinians living across a number of governorates in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with 36.5% from Gaza and (63.5%) from the West Bank. Gender was almost equally distributed within the sample with (51%) male respondents and (49%) female respondent. The questionnaire included 17 questions about participants’ knowledge and awareness of COVID- 19, 17 questions regarding the safety measures they had taken in the wake of the outbreak and 3 questions asking them to assess the efficacy of the government’s response to the pandemic. The overall correct mean of the knowledge was 79.26+-0.35. Most participants expressed confidence that Covid-19 would be successfully controlled and that Palestine could win the battle against Covid-19, though 62% believed that stricter measurements must be applied. Based on the results of this study, we conclude that health education programs aimed at improving the public’s understanding of COVID-19 are important in helping the population maintain appropriate practices, and that findings such as those discussed in this report may provide valuable feedback to lawmakers working to stop the spread of the virus.