Providing health information is a non-pharmaceutical intervention designed to reduce disease transmission and infection risk by encouraging behavior change. But does knowledge change behavior? We test whether coronavirus health knowledge promotes protective risk mitigation behaviors early in the Covid-19 pandemic in samples from four African countries (Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania). Despite reputations for weak health sectors and low average levels of education, health knowledge of the symptoms and transmission mechanisms was high in all countries in the two months after the virus entered the country. Higher knowledge was associated with increased protective measures that would likely lower disease risk with one exception–knowledge was inversely correlated with social distancing. Respondents largely adhered to mask mandates and lockdowns, but continued coming into contact with others at small, informal gatherings, gatherings not affected by mandates. Knowledge alone did not reduce all risky activities, especially gatherings within other people’s homes. Even early in the pandemic, income loss or stress were commonly reported. Our results suggest that early and consistent government provision of health information likely reduced the initial severity of the pandemic in Africa but was not a panacea.

提供健康信息是一种非药物干预，旨在通过鼓励行为改变来减少疾病传播和感染风险。但是知识会改变行为吗？我们在来自四个非洲国家（加纳、马拉维、塞拉利昂和坦桑尼亚）的样本中测试了冠状病毒健康知识是否在 Covid-19 大流行早期促进了保护性风险缓解行为。尽管以卫生部门薄弱和平均教育水平低而著称，但在病毒进入该国后的两个月内，所有国家对症状和传播机制的健康知识都很高。更高的知识与增加的保护措施有关，这可能会降低疾病风险，但有一个例外——知识与社会距离成反比。受访者基本上遵守戴口罩规定和封锁规定，但继续在小型非正式聚会上与他人接触，这些聚会不受规定影响。仅靠知识并不能减少所有危险活动，尤其是在他人家中的聚会。即使在大流行的早期，收入损失或压力也经常被报道。我们的研究结果表明，政府尽早和一致地提供健康信息可能会降低非洲大流行的最初严重程度，但并不是万能药。