Knowledge, attitude, and practice of coronavirus disease 2019 disease among patients attending coronavirus disease 2019-screening OPD

Importance This study was conducted in the early and middle stages of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in India. It helps in gaining knowledge about the virus and taking steps to prevent the pandemic. Objective To study the knowledge, attitude, and practice of patients toward COVID-19, this in turn helps to take necessary actions to prevent COVID-19-infection spread in the country. Design The prospective cross-sectional study with duration of 3 months from May 2020 to August 2020. Setting The study was conducted in Victoria Hospital, the first designated COVID-19 hospital with 1000-bedded capacity established exclusively for COVID-19 in India. Participants The study was conducted on 1000 patients aged more than 18 years attending the COVID-19-screening OPD. All patients were asked questions based on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices questionnaire. Results In our study, 63.9% patients were male and 36.1% female. Higher knowledge level was seen in males [95% confidence interval (CI) −1.12 to −0.51, P<0.0001), married and widower (95% CI 1.75–2.31, P<0.0001), professional and retired (χ2=285.45, P<0.00001), participants with high level of education (analysis of variance F=3432.7, P=0), and advancing age (χ2=16.07, P=0.0003). With regard to attitude, 99.6% patients feel that this pandemic is controllable, 95.5% agree that India will succeed against the pandemic (95% CI −3.77 to −2.40, P<0.0001). With respect to practice behavior, 70.4% patients have not ventured out and stayed home (95% CI 1.50–2.09, P<0.0001) and 96.2% patients always wore a mask while going out (95% CI −4.26 to −2.75, P<0.0001). Conclusion and relevance Positive attitudes and actions toward COVID-19 associated with higher knowledge toward the virus. So, the study suggests the need of more and more orientation programs to the public to improve knowledge about the virus.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA

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