Abstract:

Background: A quick spread of the COVID-19 infection globally became a source of public worry, and several unknowns regarding this new pathogen created a state of panic in the whole world. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world has completely disrupted the world's political, social, economic, religious, and financial structures. Mass media is one of the most important agencies of socialization and a medium of health communication in both urban and rural communities, promoting community sensitization and awareness to the public. Mass media is accessible to all people to obtain other health, economic, business, sports, and political issues and has become a learning portal for society to increase knowledge., change behaviors and attitudes and enhance the practice of health-related issues. This study aimed to determine the Knowledge, attitude, and practice of mass media staff in the control and prevention of COVID-19 in Northwestern Tanzania.

Methods: This was a mixed method study that utilized both quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches using a cross-sectional study design for quantitative and a case study for qualitative. The structured questionnaires were used to capture quantitative data. Stata version 13 was used to analyze data which was then tabulated and the frequencies and percentages were computed and logistic regression was used to test the independence between categorical variables. The case study approach was used to explore the deep understanding of mass media staff on Knowledge, attitude, and practice on prevention and control of COVID-19, Interview guide was used to collect qualitative data from In-depth interviews, Qualitative data were analyzed manually by Reflexing TA steps.

Results: Around 56% of respondents have inadequate knowledge of COVID-19,44% have adequate knowledge of COVID-19,36%(n=92), have a positive attitude toward COVID-19,64%, have a negative attitude toward COVID-19,34% have good practice on COVID-19 and 66% have poor practice on COVID-19 this for quantitative findings. In qualitative findings, basic knowledge, negative attitude, and poor practice in the prevention and control of COVID-19 were observed in this study.

Conclusion: This study showed that mass media staff have basic knowledge of COVID-19, poor attitude, and poor practice on prevention and control of COVID-19. Studies show a significant association between knowledge on the control and prevention of COVID-19 with education level, participants with diplomas and degree level of education are likely to have adequate knowledge on prevention and control of this pandemic.