A descriptive cross-sectional study on COVID-19 knowledge, attitude, and practices of South Indian population
نویسندگان
1 Department of Biochemistry, Apollo Institute Medical Sciences and Research, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, India
2 Department of Physiotherapy, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
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4 Department of Community Medicine, Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Murukambattu, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, India
5 Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Saudi Electronic University Abha, Saudi Arabia
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doi
چکیده
BACKGROUND: The 2019-novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) started as an epidemic latertransformed into a pandemic causing a threat to public health globally. Any community to fightthe COVID-19 pandemic requires adequate knowledge, attitude of the people, and practice of thegovernment-imposed laws and regulations. Based on these factors, we framed the objectives tofind the sociodemographic profile of the study group and to assess their knowledge, attitude, andpractice (KAP) toward COVID-19. These results will help the health planners and administrators ineach state to find out the gap in health education efforts.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on SouthIndian population to know KAP toward COVID-19. A convenient sampling technique was used tocollect the data using Google forms, and analysis was done using the SPSS software version 21.The questionnaire includes sociodemographic information, KAP questions toward COVID-19, andperception toward national and community responses.RESULTS: A total of 1644 were participated; the average knowledge score was 17.5 (+1.9).Most of them (92.9%) respondent’s perceived that early detection will have a better outcome fromCOVID-19, whereas the knowledge compared with practice, there is a significant difference Pearsoncorrelation (0.404) P is < 0.001.CONCLUSIONS: Although a high level of knowledge on COVID-19 in the public gradually decreasingthe practice of preventive measures, the government should continue the consistent efforts to changethe behavioral communication and motivate the public social responsibility to adhere to the healthprotocols, masking, hand hygiene, social distancing, and vaccination to prevent expected COVID-19subsequent episodes.
