Practice of COVID-19 prevention measures and its factors in long-distance truck drivers of Tigray.

Abstract

Introduction: long-distance truck drivers are a population group that moves in and out of a country and can meet with different individuals and can easily expose to COVID-19. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the level of practice and associated factors towards COVID-19 prevention measures in long-distance truck drivers of Tigray.

Methods: this is a cross-sectional study conducted on 350 long-distance truck drivers recruited by systematic random sampling in the Mekelle entry point from July 5^th to July 20^th 2020. Variables with a p-value ≤0.30 in the bivariate regression analysis were entered into the final model of logistic regression to recognize factors. All associations with the practice of COVID-19 prevention were tested for statistical significance with alpha set at the 0.05 level.

Results: around 293 (83.7%) with a 95% CI of (79.7-87.6%) of the long-distance truck drivers who participated in this study had good practice towards COVID-19 prevention measures. Having a previous test for COVID-19 is positively significantly associated with good practice towards COVID-19 prevention methods. However, individuals who had a history of COVID-19-like symptoms in the last four months and who have non-communicable diseases are 78% and 84% of the time less likely to practice COVID-19 prevention measures respectively.

Conclusion: based on this study, the practice of COVID-19 prevention measures among the long-distance truck drivers of Tigray was very good. The results of this study suggest that more emphasis should be placed on drivers who have non-communicable diseases and providing COVID-19-like symptoms to the drivers.