Page 88 - IJPS-9-1

International Journal of

Population Studies

REPORT
An assessment of the impact of formal and

informal messages about COVID-19 on the
knowledge and practices for prevention and

control among rural and urban communities in
Ecuador

1
3
3
Karina Pisco *, Fernando Ortega , Pilar Martin , Chinedu Obioha , and
2
Denice Curtis 4
1 Spay Project, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
2 Department of Health Sciences, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
3 College of Nursing and Public Health, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, United States
4 Department of Public Health, University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, United States

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of formal and informal messages
transmitted to urban and rural communities in Ecuador, on the knowledge of
prevention and control of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Six focus groups were carried
out with six to eight people per group through Zoom platform, from August 2020 to
*Corresponding author:
Karina Pisco April 2021; NVivo 12 software was used for the thematic analysis of the data. Thirty-
(karina.pisco@gmail.com) nine people, including male and female, participated in the study with mean age
Citation: Pisco, K., Ortega, F., 39 years. Main outcomes included: use of alternative medicine for prevention and
Martin, P. et al,. (2023). An control of COVID-19; religious acceptance; impact of COVID-19 on mental health;
assessment of the impact of formal lack of understanding and knowledge of the disease; and the mixed messages
and informal messages about
COVID-19 on the knowledge and shared through official and unofficial channels about virus prevention and control.
practices for prevention and control The study demonstrates the importance of using formal channels of communication
among rural and urban communities to transmit accurate information, to reach people regardless of their geographical
in Ecuador. International Journal of location.
Population Studies. 9(1):82-88.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.406
Received: November 12, 2022 Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemic; Disinformation infodemic; Culture; Informative
Accepted: April 6, 2023 messages
Published Online: April 18, 2023
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article 1. Introduction
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak – later dubbed COVID-19 – has represented a massive
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, threat to global health and shattered the world’s economy(Barua et al., 2020). COVID-
provided the original work is 19 was first identified in China in December 2019, and spread rapidly around the
properly cited. world within weeks (Chen & Yu, 2020). With over 118,000 cases in 114 countries and
Publisher’s Note: AccScience about 4291 deaths in just 2 weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) quickly
Publishing remains neutral with classified the outbreak as a pandemic (the WHO, 2020a; Cucinotta & Vanelli, 2020).

regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Rapid communication through technology and social media allowed the entire world
affiliations. to quickly realize the magnitude of the pandemic. However, there was also proliferation

Volume 9 Issue 1 (2023) 82 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.406