Abstract
BACKGROUND: Adherence to COVID-19 prevention and control measures is related to people's knowledge, attitudes and practices. SETTING: In Thabo Mofutsanyana District, the proportion of reported community COVID-19-related deaths was higher than in-facility reported deaths. AIM: To assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of the community towards COVID-19. METHODS: A survey was conducted among consenting adults from 28 February 2022 to 4 March 2022. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the responses and logistic regression used to assess factors associated with poor knowledge towards COVID-19. RESULTS: A total of 551 participants' data were analysed, most of whom were < 40 years (63%) and female (68%). Despite 43.4% having education levels below high school, 89% knew that anyone could contract COVID-19, mainly through television and/or radio (74%) and social media (53%). The majority practiced mask-wearing (84%) and social distancing (80%), while 65% indicated they will use home remedies if there was severe COVID-19 infection. Older age group (OR = 2.40; 95% CI 1.17-4.89; p = 0.015), higher education level (OR = 0.59; 95% CI 0.39-0.87; p = 0.009) and higher monthly income were each associated with poor knowledge towards COVID-19 but the significance did not remain in multivariate model. CONCLUSION: Participants had good knowledge of COVID-19; however, a high proportion supported the use of home remedies in severe COVID-19 infections. This underscores the need to enhance the health-seeking behaviour of communities through health education and community engagement, using television and/or radio and social media. CONTRIBUTION: Study findings are useful to inform preparedness and response strategies in communities.