Original Research

Effect of telephone counselling on the knowledge, attitude and practices of contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Egypt

Randa M. Said, Ghada M. Salem
African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine | Vol 13, No 1 | a2852 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v13i1.2852 | © 2021 Randa M Said, Ghada M Salem | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 23 November 2020 | Published: 12 July 2021

About the author(s)

Randa M. Said, Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt
Ghada M. Salem, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging respiratory illness. The World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and called for collaborative efforts, such as contact tracing and promoting the public awareness about COVID-19, and recommended prevention and control measures.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of telephone counselling on the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAPs) of contacts of COVID-19 confirmed cases towards COVID-19 epidemiology and infection prevention and control measures.

Setting: Ten areas in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt divided into six rural and four urban areas.

Methods: A non-randomised controlled trial was conducted in Sharkia Governorate, Egypt, from 26 March 2020 to 12 April 2020 on 208 contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, divided equally into two groups: an experiment group that was exposed to telephone counselling by the researchers and a control group that was exposed to routine surveillance by local health authority. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the KAP of both groups towards COVID-19 before and after intervention.

Results: After intervention the percent of contacts who achieved good knowledge, positive attitudes and better practice scores in the experimental group was 91.3%, 57.8% and 71.2%, respectively, compared with 13.5%, 7.8% and 16.3%, respectively, in the control group. Male gender and working group were significantly associated with bad practice score. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between differences in knowledge, attitudes and practices of the experimental group before and after the intervention.

Conclusion: This study proved the effectiveness of telephone counselling in improving COVID-19-related KAP scores of contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases.


Keywords

telephone counselling; KAP score; contacts of confirmed COVID-19-cases; COVID-19 stigma; routine surveillance; health education; home isolation

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