INTRODUCTION
According to the WHO report, the first cases of novel pneumonia with unknown etiology were reported in late December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. One week later, Chinese authorities identified a new type of coronavirus as causal agent of the disease (WHO, 2019). This novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world. On 11 March 2020, WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic (CDC, 2020b; WHO, 2020c). The first cases of infection were identified in Iran on 19 February 2020(WHO, 2020b). After that, the rate of the disease has increased rapidly in the country, so that on 18 May 2020, over 122,000 cases of the disease and about 7000 deaths have been reported(Worldmeters.info, 2020).
The disease can mainly transmit through contact with respiratory and saliva droplets and also objects and surfaces contaminated to the droplets. According to the transmission routes, implementing the basic preventive measures by the public plays the most important role in infection prevention and control of the COVID-19 (Peng et al., 2020; WHO, 2020d). Effective public awareness of correct information on the COVID-19 outbreak through a variety of media is crucial to achieve a suitable practice of the protective measures by the public. On the other hand, one of the major challenges in preventing and controlling COVID-19 has been the proliferation of misinformation on social media (Frenkel, Alba, & Zhong, 2020; Pennycook, McPhetres, Zhang, & Rand, 2020). Propagation of this misinformation via popular messengers among the community has confused the public in adopting the correct preventive measures and has plagued the scientific community (Mian & Khan, 2020). Kouzy et al. provided the definition of misinformation as a “claim of fact that is currently false due to lack of scientific evidence (Kouzy et al., 2020). The lack of evidence and unproven results of some studies have also led to controversy among the public and even scientific community about disease-related issues such as the use of masks, the type and concentration of disinfectants, and transmission rout which ultimately may change the public behavior (Eikenberry et al., 2020; Huynh, 2020).
In recent years, the number of Internet users in Iran has grown (over 80% penetration rate). According to datareportal.com (Digital-2019- Iran), more than 47 million of Iranian (̴ 57%) are active users of social networks (Kemp, 2019). Hence, Iranian users are known as one of the biggest users of social networks in the world (Honari, 2015). Undoubtedly, one of the main ways to obtain information and knowledge about health issues like COVID-19 has been social networks. Assessment of knowledge and attitude of the public will help to prevent or reduce the uncoordinated social behavior in such special conditions as COVID-19 epidemic. Generally, different aspects of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) affect Health-related behavior in any kind of society (Launiala, 2009).
Several KAP surveys have been conducted regarding various viral disease outbreaks around the world, such as the Studies on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria (Iliyasu et al., 2015), Sudan (Alfaki, Salih, Elhuda, & Egail, 2016), and Iran (Holakouie-Naieni et al., 2015), on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia (Al-Hazmi, Gosadi, Somily, Alsubaie, & Saeed, 2018; Nour, Babilghith, Natto, Al-Amin, & Alawneh, 2015), on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Qatar (Bener & Al-Khal, 2004) and Singapore (Vijaya et al., 2004) and also on Avian Influenza in China(Xiang et al., 2010) and Influenza A in India (Kamate et al., 2010). This kind of survey will help the decision-makers and health authorities to upgrade their educational programs in combating the crisis of outbreaks.