Survey of kAP of Saveh industrial workers in using personal protective equipment effective in preventing covid-19

Background and Aims: Awareness of a disease can affect people's attitudes and practices, and wrong attitudes and practices directly increase the risk of infection. The aim of this study was to determine the status and relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice of industry employees about personal protection measures effective in preventing covid-19 infection in Kaveh Industrial City. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, which was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of individuals about effective personal protection measures to prevent COVID-19 in Iran in the summer of 2020, a researcher-made questionnaire was used. In this study, after selecting 24 factories in Saveh Industrial City, 500 questionnaires were distributed among the employees by quota sampling. After collecting and reviewing them, 461 questionnaires were fully answered and studied. Finally, the scores related to all three parameters were calculated and Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine their relationship. Results: The average age of participants in this study was 36.4 ± 6 and had a work experience of 12.66± 6.6 years. It was determined that the score related to the awareness of the virus nature was greater than the awareness of personal protective measures. It was deduced that, while 88.9% of individuals are well aware of the nature of the virus, 71.8% were in the subgroup of taking protective measures. The highest level of desirable score was related to their attitude, which accounted for 92.4%. In terms of preventive practice, 80.3% of participants exhibited moderate adherence to good practices towards preventing Covid-19 infection Conclusion: individuals had heightened awareness towards the nature of Covid-19 virus, however they had little awareness towards preventive health measures. consideration that majority of people have received concerned information via television, its essential to give accurate and timely information in order to increase community’s awareness as well as optimal behavior in preventing Covid-19