Abstract:
Background: COVID-19 being a new disease has been fraught with poor public social
responses. This survey described the behavioural responses to COVID-19 from
individuals in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society like Nigeria.
Methods: The study used a web-based descriptive cross-sectional design to recruit
Nigerian adults, 18 years and above from all the geopolitical zones in the country, by
snowball sampling technique. A 6-page Google form survey tool was used to administer
the questionnaire via emails, WhatsApp groups and other social media platforms. Data
analysis was done using descriptive statistics with percentage frequency distribution.
Results: A total of 1841 respondents (45.8% females) were finally analyzed. The age range
was 18-84years with mean of 31±11years. Overall, 1079 (58.6%) expressed at least one
element of fear of disclosing their COVID-19 status. There were 1047 (56.7%) respondents
who expressed worry about being discriminated against if they get COVD-19 and 1087
(59.1%) agreed that family members of COVID-19 patients may be rejected by the
community. Majority 1749 (95%) stated willingness to present to the healthcare facility,
though 932 (50.6%) stated they will not be attended to if suspected to have COVID-19.
Of the respondents, 794 (43.1%) indicated that COVID-19 was caused by the Chinese
and 1202 (65.3%) indicated that healthcare workers should be kept in a hotel separate
from the rest of the community. Majority 1679 (91.2%) however, disagreed that COVID-
19 was a death sentence.
Conclusion: The study revealed that there were elements of fear of disclosure, with
discrimination and stigmatization being the major causes of concern.
