PMID- 34559858
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20211004
LR  - 20211004
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 16
IP  - 9
DP  - 2021
TI  - Community risk perception and barriers for the practice of COVID-19 prevention 
      measures in Northwest Ethiopia: A qualitative study.
PG  - e0257897
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0257897 [doi]
LID - e0257897
AB  - BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, viral diseases continue 
      to emerge and represent a serious issue for public health. The elderly and those 
      with underlying chronic diseases are more likely to become severe cases. Our 
      study sets out to present in-depth exploration and analyses of the community's 
      risk perception and barriers to the practice of COVID-19 prevention measures in 
      South Gondar Zone, Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A qualitative study was done in 
      three districts of South Gondar Zone. Community key informants and health 
      extension workers were selected purposely for in-depth interviews and focus group 
      discussion. The interviews were conducted by maintaining WHO recommendations for 
      social distancing and use of appropriate personal protective equipment. The 
      sample size for the study depended on the theoretical saturation of the data at 
      the time of data collection. The qualitative data generated from in-depth 
      interviews and focus group discussions was transcribed verbatim and translated 
      into English language and thematically analyzed using open code software version 
      4.02. RESULTS: Three main themes and five categories emerged from the narrations 
      of the participants regarding the perceived barriers for the practice of COVID-19 
      prevention measures. A total of 9 community key informants (5 women development 
      armies (HDA), 2 health extension workers (HEW), and 2 religious leaders 
      participated in the in-depth interview, while two focus group discussions (7 
      participants in each round) were conducted among purposely selected community 
      members. The age of the participants ranged from 24 to 70 years with the median 
      age of 48 years. The major identified barriers for practicing COVID-19 prevention 
      measures were the presence of strong cultural and religious practices, perceiving 
      that the disease does not affect the young, misinformation about the disease, and 
      lack of trust in the prevention measures. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-cultural, religious, 
      and economic related barriers were identified from the participant's narratives 
      for the practice of COVID-19 prevention measures in south Gondar Zone. Our 
      findings suggest the need to strengthen community awareness and education 
      programs about the prevention measures of COVID-19 and increase diagnostic 
      facilities with strong community-based surveillance to control the transmission 
      of the pandemic.
FAU - Tesfaw, Aragaw
AU  - Tesfaw A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-2776-7469
AD  - Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, 
      Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
FAU - Arage, Getachew
AU  - Arage G
AD  - Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, Debre 
      Tabor, Ethiopia.
FAU - Teshome, Fentaw
AU  - Teshome F
AD  - Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, 
      Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
FAU - Taklual, Wubet
AU  - Taklual W
AD  - Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, 
      Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
FAU - Seid, Tigist
AU  - Seid T
AD  - Department of Midwifery, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, 
      Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
FAU - Belay, Emaway
AU  - Belay E
AD  - Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, 
      Debre Tabor, Ethiopia.
FAU - Mehiret, Gashaw
AU  - Mehiret G
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-0676-7136
AD  - School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Debre Tabor University, Debre 
      Tabor, Ethiopia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Clinical Trial
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Multicenter Study
DEP - 20210924
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - COVID-19/*epidemiology/*prevention & control/*psychology
MH  - Ethiopia/epidemiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - *Pandemics
MH  - *Perception
MH  - Risk Factors
MH  - *SARS-CoV-2
PMC - PMC8462701
COIS- The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
EDAT- 2021/09/25 06:00
MHDA- 2021/10/05 06:00
PMCR- 2021/09/24
CRDT- 2021/09/24 17:19
PHST- 2021/03/10 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/09/13 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/09/24 17:19 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/09/25 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/10/05 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/09/24 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-21-07870 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0257897 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2021 Sep 24;16(9):e0257897. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257897. 
      eCollection 2021.