Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Barangay Health Workers in the Top 5 COVID-19 Affected Barangays in Cebu City Towards Preventing COVID-19 Transmission

IntroductionCOVID-19 has impacted almost the entirety of the world. In the Philippines, the disease has reached a total of 1,269,465 cases and 21,898 deaths as of June 07, 2021.The COVID-19 prevention strategy of the country places Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) at its core. Their basic knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on COVID-19 control is necessary to allow efficient public health response. ObjectiveTo assess the KAP of BHWs on preventing transmission and exposure to COVID-19. MethodologyThe study used a descriptive-correlational research design. A KAP questionnaire was formulated and the proposal was then submitted to the Cebu Institute of Medicine Ethics Review Board. Letters, informed consent forms and questionnaires were then sent to the participating barangays. Data AnalysisA scoring mechanism was applied to the total score of each participant in each category (KAP) and weighted mean was calculated. Lastly, the significant relationship between the KAP of BHWs in the prevention of COVID-19 transmission was calculated and compared. Results and DiscussionMost of the BHWs were classified as knowledgeable (66.10%). None of them scored average to no knowledge at all. In the attitude domain, a factor average of 4.15 was computed which was translated as favorable, and practice classified as Always with an average of 4.43. Using Pearson rho-correlation analysis, results show that knowledge does not necessarily affect attitude (p-value >0.05) but significantly contributes to improving attitude and frequency of practices. Likewise, attitude significantly (p-value < 0.05) induced a positive impact on the practices. Regression Analysis shows that a unit increase in knowledge increases the frequency of practice by 0.7 units and every unit increase of attitude contributes 0.21 to the frequency of practices. Coefficient of variation indicates that 19.2%-21.9% of the total variations of practice can be explained by the variations of knowledge and attitude. ConclusionThe BHWs were found to be knowledgeable in COVID-19 prevention, and their knowledge significantly improved their attitude and frequency of practices. Similarly, their attitude induced a positive impact on their practices.