Influence of sociodemographic characteristics on knowledge and attitudes about COVID-19 in northern Iraq

الملخص EN

Objective: Targeted public health campaigns are important in countries where health resources are limited.

This is especially the case for countries such as Iraq since decades of sanctions, war and armed conflict have depleted the health system.

The current study investigated the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on attitudes towards the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) relating to knowledge and behaviors held by people living in North Iraq.

Method: A cross-sectional survey, conducted from 21st March to 12th April 2020, used an online platform.

Multivariate analyses were used to examine the relationship between sociodemographic factors and respondents’ knowledge, attitude and behavioral practices in response to COVID-19.

Results: Respondents with better self-reported health were most likely to report sleep impairment (OR=2.32,1.49-3.68) impaired eating (OR=1.84, 1.17-2.95) fear in response to social media news on COVID-19 (OR=1.92, 1.32-2.81) and were more likely to practice COVID-19 prevention measures (OR= 1.08, 1.01-1.14).

On the other hand, those with better self-reported health (OR= 0.4; 0.27-0.59) were less likely to report good knowledge on COVID-19 whereas those with higher levels of education (OR= 3.59, 1.29-10.2) claimed to have higher knowledge of COVID-19.

Men believed that war was more frightening than COVID-19 (OR=1.91, 1.33-2.75) compared to woman.

Conclusion: Self-reported health and type of employment were the sociodemographic factors most frequently noted to influence knowledge, attitude and behaviors toward COVID-19 amongst the northern Iraqi population.

In a country where health resources are scare and stretched because of a history of sanctions and prolonged war and community violence, these results provide directions for targeted approaches to support public health campaigns.