AUTHOR=Umer Abdurezak , Abdella Kedir , Tekle Yared , Debebe Addisalem , Manyazewal Tsegahun , Yuya Mohammed , Mohammed Hussen 

TITLE=Community Engagement in the Fight Against COVID-19: Knowledge, Attitude, and Prevention Practices Among Dire Dawa Residents, Eastern Ethiopia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.753867

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2021.753867

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Abstract 
Introduction: There is a global concern that COVID-19 cannot be addressed without the integration and active engagement of communities. We aimed to investigate the current knowledge, attitude, and practices toward COVID-19 among community residents in Dire Dawa administration, Eastern Ethiopia.
Method: We conducted a community-based, cross-sectional study of 422 community residents using a structured questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19. We used stratified random sampling to select participants. Using STATA 14, we produced crude and adjusted odds ratios to assess the association between dependent and independent variables at a 95% confidence interval. 
Result: Oveall, morethan half (58.9%) of the respondent were found to have adequate knowledge, almost half of the study participants have unfavourable atiitude while only 43% of the study partcipants have good practice of COVID-19 transmsition and prevention methods.  Adequate knowledge of the participants were singnificantly associated with urban resident (AOR= 5.0, CI=3.1.-8.4), having formal education (AOR=3.5. CI=1.5-6.7) while covariates like place of residence(AOR=4.1, CI= 2.3-7.2), high formal educational status (AOR=2.9, CI=1,2-7.4), adequate knowledge (AOR=3.5, CI=2.3-5.8) and those with favourable attitude (AOR=2.3, CI= 1.4-3.8) were a predictors of good practice of COVID-19 transmission prevention and control methods.
Conclusion: Our findings revealed significant knowledge gaps, unfavorable attitude, and poor practice towards COVID-19 among community residents in Eastern Ethiopia. COVID-19 taskforces need to push further on COVID-19 prevention and conrrol interventions.
Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), SARS-CoV-2, Knowledge Attitude Practice, Community, Ethiopia.