Coverage of Health Information by Different Sources in Communities: Implication for COVID-19 Epidemic Response

Health personnel and community workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 emergency response and need to be equipped with adequate knowledge related to epidemics for an effective response. This study aimed to identify the coverage of COVID-19 health information via different sources accessed by health workers and community workers in Vietnam. A cross-sectional study using a web-based survey was carried out from January to February 2020 in Vietnam. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used for recruiting participants. We utilized the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the construct validity of the questionnaire. A higher percentage of participants knew about Clinical and pathogen characteristics of COVID-19, compared to Regulations and policies related to COVID-19. The percentage of participants accessing the information on Guidelines and policies on prevention and control of COVID-19 was the lowest, especially among medical students. Mass media and peer-educators channels had a higher score of accessing COVID-19 information, compared to Organizations/ agencies/ associations sources. Participants consumed most of their COVID-19 information via Internet, online newspapers, social networks. Our findings indicate an urgency to re-design training programs and communication activities for a more effective dissemination of information related to the COVID-19 epidemic or epidemics in general.