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Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice toward COVID-19 among a Sample of Iranian General Population

BACKGROUND: The new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is rapidly spreading around the world. At present (up to July 11, 2020), 255,117 cases and 12,635 deaths due to this disease have been reported in Iran. Following the guidelines recommended for the prevention and control of the disease is the most important approach to combating this global threat. 
AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice, and fear of the Iranian people in relation to COVID-19. 
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with the participation of 558 Iranian people who entered the study by convenience sampling method. The knowledge, attitude, practice, and fear of the Iranian general population toward COVID-19 were collected using an online 50-items questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, independent sample T-test, and bivariate Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the data. 
RESULTS: The studied subjects were mostly in urban area (81.0%), female (61.3%), and married (57.9%). The participants’ knowledge about personal hygiene (88.9%), using a facemask (82.2%), and the symptoms of the COVID-19 (76.8%) were adequate. However, their knowledge about contaminated surfaces disinfection procedure (41.8%), and the importance of using a facemask for healthy people (43.7%) was lower. The highest level of the subjects’ attitude was related to the role of social distancing (94.6%), staying at home (94.5%), and personal hygiene (91.2%). The low levels of attitude were also associated with access to personal protective equipment (84.1%) and the psychological effects of COVID-19 (65.3%). Furthermore, the highest levels of practices were related to avoiding hand shaking with others (91.5%) and washing hands frequently (88.8%). The practices such as following a healthy and nutritious diet (45.1%) and wearing gloves (51.4%) were reported to be less common. 
CONCLUSION: The results showed that about half of the subjects did not have enough knowledge about COVID-19. However, the attitude and practice of most of the participants toward COVID-19 were moderate or good. Nevertheless, the extensive health education interventions are needed to promote knowledge about COVID-19 and also to motivate people to do preventive behaviors.