Survey data of COVID-19-related Knowledge, Risk Perceptions and Precautionary Behavior among Nigerians.

In response to the global call for strategic information to understand the novel coronavirus, the dataset presented in this paper is an examination of COVID-19-related knowledge, risk perceptions and precautionary health behavior among Nigerians. The data were generated during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country through a survey distributed via an online questionnaire, assessing socio-demographic information (7 items), knowledge (5 items), information sources (1 item), risk perception (9 items), expected end of lockdown (1 item), and COVID-19 precautionary health behavior (10 items), from 28th March to 4th April, 2020, gathering a total of 1,357 responses. A combination of purposive and snowball techniques helped to select the respondents via Whatsapp and Facebook from 180 cities/towns in the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The entire dataset is stored in a Microsoft Excel Worksheet (xls) and the questionnaire is attached as a supplementary file. The data will assist in curbing the Coronavirus pandemic by offering evidence for strategic and targeted interventions as well as health policy formulations and implementation.


a b s t r a c t
In response to the global call for strategic information to understand the novel coronavirus, the dataset presented in this paper is an examination of COVID-19-related knowledge, risk perceptions and precautionary health behavior among Nigerians. The data were generated during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country through a survey distributed via an online questionnaire, assessing socio-demographic information (7 items), knowledge (5 items), information sources (1 item), risk perception (9 items), expected end of lockdown (1 item), and COVID-19 precautionary health behavior (10 items), from 28th March to 4th April, 2020, gathering a total of 1,357 responses. A combination of purposive and snowball techniques helped to select the respondents via Whatsapp and Facebook from 180 cities/towns in the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The entire dataset is stored in a Microsoft Excel Worksheet (xls) and the questionnaire is attached as a sup-plementary file. The data will assist in curbing the Coronavirus pandemic by offering evidence for strategic and targeted interventions as well as health policy formulations and implementation.
© 2020 The Author(s Value of the data • The data represent the first and one of the largest pools so far for the exploration of COVID-19-related knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown and precautionary health behavior among Nigerians. • The data can be compared with similar studies on knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown and COVID-19 precautionary health behavior from other countries around the world and may serve as a heuristic basis for further insight into the phenomena of the COVID 19. • The data can be statistically analyzed to examine the relationships between sociodemographics, knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown, and COVID-19 precautionary health behaviors. • The details of the analyzed data are beneficial for preventing and curbing the spread of COVID-19 and the data can assist with planning for public health interventions as well as policy formulation and implementation.

Data description
This data set provides information on COVID-19-related knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown and precautionary health behavior among Nigerians. The obtained raw data used for each table is stored in a Microsoft Excel Worksheet (xls). Items 1-7 elicit respondents' gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, educational qualification, religion and perceived financial situation. Items 8-12 assessed respondents' COVID-19 knowledge and item 13 their sources of new information about COVID-19. Items 14 -23 and 24 -32 measured their of COVID-19 perceived threat and preventive behavior respectively while item 33 revealed "how

Survey design, materials, and methods
The research adopted a descriptive survey design to evaluate the dataset on the knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown and COVID-19 precautionary health behavior in Nigeria. This dataset included 1357 responses collected between 28 th March and 4 th April, 2020 from the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Ethical approval was obtained from the Faculty of Social Sciences Ethical Board, University of Ibadan. Respondents' participation was completely consensual, anonymous and voluntary.
The researchers used an online questionnaire to collect data for this survey (See Appendix). Eight items (section A) elicit respondents' demographic information, including their gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, educational qualification, religion and perceived financial situation. Five  [2] . One item (Section C) assessed sources of new information about COVID-19, and nine items (section D) adapted from [3] measured perceived threat of COVID-19 (Cronbach Alpha is 0.76), while ten items (Section E) adapted from [4 , 5] measured preventive behavior (Cronbach Alpha is 0.75) and One item (Section F) asked respondents "how soon they expected things to return to normal" The respondents' demographics, COVID-19-related knowledge, knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown and precautionary health behavior were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. Correlation analyses, to understand the relationships between demographics, knowledge, information sources, risk perception, expected end of lockdown and COVID-19 precautionary health behavior, were conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 20.