KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, AND PRACTICES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

AMONG FILIPINO JEEPNEY DRIVERS

Javier Wesley, Bernel Jose, & de los Santos Victor
Research Mentor: Agnes V. Raymundo, RN, MAN, PhD

ABSTRACT
Background: Jeepney drivers has been drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,
thus leading them to adapt to multiple of the problems which arose during this time. This
leads them to change multiple aspects of their lives, such as how they approach and
understand the current situation and how to enable themselves to cope with that
pandemic whilst continue the transportation of people around the country.
Objective: This study aims to assess the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of
Filipino jeepney drivers towards COVID-19 and the pandemic event in an urban
community.
Designs: A descriptive correlation research design was used to measure the level of
knowledge, attitudes, and practices among the jeepney drivers. The sample (N=40) is
composed of jeepney drivers located in Malabon City in which the location of the study
revolved on. It aims to find if there any significance between the level of knowledge,
attitudes and practices of jeepney drivers. All the data was gathered through survey
then given to the respondents, the survey was adopted from the study Knowledge,
Attitudes, and Practice Toward the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak Among
Selected Employed People in the National Capital Region, Philippines (Bautista Jr. et al,
2020).
Results: Since the F - Computed value of 2.09 is lesser then the F - tabular value of
4.46 at .05 level of significance with 2 and 8 degrees of freedom, the research
hypothesis is rejected in favor of the null hypothesis which means that there is no
significant difference between the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of
jeepney drivers towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Malabon City.

Conclusion: Many countries have placed strict lockdowns, travel restrictions, or shelter-
in-place orders on their citizens in order to combat the spread of COVID-19. The
success of these preventive steps is highly reliant on everyone's cooperation and
enforcement. People's awareness, perceptions, and practices about the disease all play
a role in a society's willingness to adopt behavioral improvement interventions imposed
by health authorities. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge levels,
attitudes and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic among Filipino jeepney drivers.
COVID-19 is a relatively new virus that has already caused problems in the short period
since its discovery in December 2019. There has been a scarcity of reported data on
knowledge, attitudes and practices about COVID-19. The disease's novelty, as well as
its unknowns, make it important for health officials to devise effective strategies for
preparing and managing the public. It is therefore essential to investigate the
population's understanding, behaviors, and activities in order to direct these efforts.The
findings implies that Filipino jeepney drivers have an acceptable level of knowledge on
COVID-19 and are generally optimistic in their outlook on overcoming the pandemic.
Nonetheless, consistent messaging from the government and/or health authorities is
critical to increasing public awareness of COVID-19. Furthermore, certain segments of
the population can profit from targeted health education initiatives aimed at improving
COVID-19 knowledge and practice.