Determinants of COVID-19 knowledge and self-action among African women: Evidence from Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria

Joseph A Braimah; Vincent Z Kuuire; Elijah Bisung; Mildred M K Pagra; Moses M Kansanga; Bradley P Stoner

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0001688

Determinants of COVID-19 knowledge and self-action among African women: Evidence from Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2023 May 3;3(5):e0001688. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001688. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Joseph A Braimah¹, Vincent Z Kuuire^{2

3}, Elijah Bisung⁴, Mildred M K Pagra⁵, Moses M Kansanga⁶, Bradley P Stoner⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health & Society, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada.
² Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada.
³ Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁴ School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.
⁵ Department of African and General Studies, SD Dombo University of Business & Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana.
⁶ Department of Geography, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States of America.
⁷ Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.

Abstract

Knowledge of infectious diseases and self-action are vital to disease control and prevention. Yet, little is known about the factors associated with knowledge of and self-action to prevent the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This study accomplishes two objectives. Firstly, we examine the determinants of COVID-19 knowledge and preventive knowledge among women in four sub-Saharan African countries (Kenya, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burkina Faso). Secondly, we explore the factors associated with self-action to prevent COVID-19 infections among these women. Data for the study are from the Performance for Monitoring Action COVID-19 Survey, conducted in June and July 2020 among women aged 15-49. Data were analysed using linear regression technique. The study found high COVID-19 knowledge, preventive knowledge, and self-action among women in these four countries. Additionally, we found that age, marital status, education, location, level of COVID-19 information, knowledge of COVID-19 call centre, receipt of COVID-19 information from authorities, trust in authorities, and trust in social media influence COVID-19 knowledge, preventive knowledge, and self-action. We discuss the policy implications of our findings.

Copyright: © 2023 Braimah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Grants and funding

This research was partly supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [FRN 185828]. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.