Abstract

A person’s positive evaluation towards the use of face masks may be a critical factor in the prevention and management of Covid-19 and other related virus outbreaks. This study investigated the attitude of Yaba residents towards the use of face masks for the purpose of identifying differences that may be peculiar to residents whose statuses were categorized as employees, students and the self-employed. An online survey of social whatsapp groups within Yaba district was conducted to enable the authors fulfill the inclusion criteria of Yaba residents. A total of 262 responses were fit for analysis. The responses were subjected to a factor analysis to determine the reliability of the instrument. Thus, a coefficient alpha statistics of 0.88 was obtained. A One Way between subject ANOVA statistics suggested statistical significant differences in the attitude of the Yaba residents towards the use of face masks. (F(259) = 3.9, p = 0.022). A Scheffe post hoc analysis suggested that participants who were employees expressed a better attitude (M=80.84, SD=10.33) towards the use of face mask compared to participants who were self=employed (M=76.59, SD=13.66), and participants who were students (M=77.05, SD=12.72). Additional results suggested that females had a higher positive attitude (M=80.29, SD=11.54) compared to males (M=77.10, SD=12.11) t (260) =-2.150, p=0.032.) It is recommended that efforts to curb the spread of a virus should focus on different groups in the society due to their peculiarities .

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