Abstract:

The study examined the level of COVID-19 knowledge and preventive health behaviors among males and females in Pakistan. It also attempted to find the association between the level of COVID-19 knowledge and preventive health behaviors and its differences among males and females. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Total of 502 (244 females and 258 males) respondents were selected conveniently from Pakistan. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square test) were used to analyze the data through SPSS. The results showed that most of the females 158 (64.8%) had more COVID-19 knowledge than males. They were also adopting more COVID-19 preventive health behaviors than males. The study findings also showed the level of COVID-19 knowledge was significantly (p<0.05) associated with preventive health behaviors among females but was not significantly associated with males. The study concluded that the gender knowledge gap existed between males and females. Females who had more COVID-19 knowledge were adopting better preventive health behaviors to overt COVID-19 disease. Therefore, there is a need to more focus on providing COVID-19 awareness about causes and precautionary measures through information communication technologies so that COVID-19 spread in Pakistan may be controlled.

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