Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study
While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, we have witnessed substantial mis- and disinformation regarding various aspects of the disease. We conducted a cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire for the general public (recruited via so...
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doaj-35024044bf084d4d9d1ead45b1f3600f2021-07-01T00:09:42ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health1661-78271660-46012021-06-01186439643910.3390/ijerph18126439Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional StudySathyanarayanan Doraiswamy0Sohaila Cheema1Patrick Maisonneuve2Amit Abraham3Ingmar Weber4Jisun An5Albert B. Lowenfels6Ravinder Mamtani7Institute for Population Health, Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar, Ar-Rayyan, QatarInstitute for Population Health, Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar, Ar-Rayyan, QatarDivision of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, IEO European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, 20141 Milan, ItalyInstitute for Population Health, Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar, Ar-Rayyan, QatarQatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Ar-Rayyan, QatarQatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Ar-Rayyan, QatarDepartment of Surgery, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, NY 10595, USAInstitute for Population Health, Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar, Ar-Rayyan, QatarWhile the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, we have witnessed substantial mis- and disinformation regarding various aspects of the disease. We conducted a cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire for the general public (recruited via social media) and healthcare workers (recruited via email) from the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa region to understand the knowledge of and anxiety levels around COVID-19 (April–June 2020) during the early stage of the pandemic. The final dataset used for the analysis comprised of 1658 questionnaires (53.0% of 3129 received questionnaires; 1337 [80.6%] from the general public survey and 321 [19.4%] from the healthcare survey). Knowledge about COVID-19 was significantly different across the two survey populations, with a much higher proportion of healthcare workers possessing better COVID-19 knowledge than the general public (62.9% vs. 30.0%, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). A reverse effect was observed for anxiety, with a higher proportion of very anxious (or really frightened) respondents among the general public compared to healthcare workers (27.5% vs. 11.5%, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). A higher proportion of the general public tended to overestimate their chance of dying if they become ill with COVID-19, with 251 (18.7%) reporting the chance of dying (once COVID-19 positive) to be ≥25% versus 19 (5.9%) of healthcare workers (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). Good knowledge about COVID-19 was associated with low levels of anxiety. Panic and unfounded anxiety, as well as casual and carefree attitudes, can propel risk taking and mistake-making, thereby increasing vulnerability. It is important that governments, public health agencies, healthcare workers, and civil society organizations keep themselves updated regarding scientific developments and that they relay messages to the community in an honest, transparent, unbiased, and timely manner.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6439COVID-19health informationmisinformationanxietyknowledge |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy Sohaila Cheema Patrick Maisonneuve Amit Abraham Ingmar Weber Jisun An Albert B. Lowenfels Ravinder Mamtani |
spellingShingle |
Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy Sohaila Cheema Patrick Maisonneuve Amit Abraham Ingmar Weber Jisun An Albert B. Lowenfels Ravinder Mamtani Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health COVID-19 health information misinformation anxiety knowledge |
author_facet |
Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy Sohaila Cheema Patrick Maisonneuve Amit Abraham Ingmar Weber Jisun An Albert B. Lowenfels Ravinder Mamtani |
author_sort |
Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy |
title |
Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study |
title_short |
Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study |
title_full |
Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study |
title_fullStr |
Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Knowledge and Anxiety about COVID-19 in the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa Region—A Cross Sectional Study |
title_sort |
knowledge and anxiety about covid-19 in the state of qatar, and the middle east and north africa region—a cross sectional study |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
issn |
1661-7827 1660-4601 |
publishDate |
2021-06-01 |
description |
While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, we have witnessed substantial mis- and disinformation regarding various aspects of the disease. We conducted a cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire for the general public (recruited via social media) and healthcare workers (recruited via email) from the State of Qatar, and the Middle East and North Africa region to understand the knowledge of and anxiety levels around COVID-19 (April–June 2020) during the early stage of the pandemic. The final dataset used for the analysis comprised of 1658 questionnaires (53.0% of 3129 received questionnaires; 1337 [80.6%] from the general public survey and 321 [19.4%] from the healthcare survey). Knowledge about COVID-19 was significantly different across the two survey populations, with a much higher proportion of healthcare workers possessing better COVID-19 knowledge than the general public (62.9% vs. 30.0%, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). A reverse effect was observed for anxiety, with a higher proportion of very anxious (or really frightened) respondents among the general public compared to healthcare workers (27.5% vs. 11.5%, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). A higher proportion of the general public tended to overestimate their chance of dying if they become ill with COVID-19, with 251 (18.7%) reporting the chance of dying (once COVID-19 positive) to be ≥25% versus 19 (5.9%) of healthcare workers (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). Good knowledge about COVID-19 was associated with low levels of anxiety. Panic and unfounded anxiety, as well as casual and carefree attitudes, can propel risk taking and mistake-making, thereby increasing vulnerability. It is important that governments, public health agencies, healthcare workers, and civil society organizations keep themselves updated regarding scientific developments and that they relay messages to the community in an honest, transparent, unbiased, and timely manner. |
topic |
COVID-19 health information misinformation anxiety knowledge |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6439 |
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