The global community has struggled with COVID-19 for a year. However, the ability to comply with strict preventive measures for many more months to come should be strictly monitored. The study aimed to assess COVID-19 preventive practices and knowledge among the Malaysian public after a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a questionnaire-based study performed on adults in Malaysia, assessing both practices and knowledge of COVID-19 preventive measures. A total of 2558 respondents were included. The average practice score was 7.9±0.99 (maximum possible score=9). Overall, when leaving the house, the most common type of mask used were medical masks (n=1792, 70.1%). A majority admitted that they always wore masks (n=2284, 89.3%), approximately half (n=1325, 51.8%) only sometimes sanitized their hands, whilst 1456 (56.9%) always complied with the one-meter social distancing rule. The average mask knowledge score was 11.1±1.9 (maximum possible score=15). The average score for other preventive measures was 5.7±0.7 (maximum possible score=6). There was a significant positive association between practice and overall total knowledge of prevention measures (ρ=0.1, 95% CI=0.02-0.01, p=0.03), in which an increase in prevention practices was observed with an increase in overall knowledge score. This study demonstrates that even after a year of struggling with the new norms of COVID-19, there is still a need to continuously educate the public on COVID-19 preventive measures among Malaysians. In addition, further steps must be taken to improve the current practice of preventive measures, which includes targeting behavioral changes.
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