Knowledge, attitude and practices associated with COVID-19 among undergraduate medical students of Rajasthan

Authors

  • Riecha Joshi 1Final Year Medical Student, Government Medical College, Kota, Rajasthan, India
  • Rajendra Takhar 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, Government Medical College, Kota, Rajasthan, India
  • Sanjay Jain 3Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, NIMS Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20210226

Keywords:

Attitude, COVID-19, Knowledge, Medical students, Practices

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is a pandemic that has taken over the entire world and its KAP is important for medical students in order for them to be well-versed future health workers. To evaluate the adequacy of knowledge of medical students to deal with the ongoing pandemic and their attitudes and practices towards the prevention and control of the pandemic.

Methods: A KAP study was conducted in the Undergraduate Medical Students of Rajasthan. A questionnaire was sent via Google forms through social media platforms to the participants. Statistical analysis done by ANOVA, student t-test.

Results: The mean ± SD scores attained for knowledge, attitude and practices were 6.63±1.447, 16.45±2.589. The scores attained by different age groups, batches, colleges and genders were comparable. The knowledge of the students in regard of main symptoms (98.8.%), mode of spread (92.53%), time taken for the manifestation of the disease (97.35%) and precautions to prevent the spread of the virus (99.02%) is satisfactory, however, regarding the type of mask WHO advices for the general people in areas of widespread transmission with limited capacity for implementing control measures (31%), whether a COVID-19 positive mother should breastfeed her new born (43%), the knowledge isn’t adequate. 86% of the students are confident about being able to take care of symptoms. 72% students are positive about working as frontline workers.

Conclusions: Positive attitude and practices are seen in medical students of Rajasthan, the knowledge is adequate and they can be a vital asset to spreading awareness about COVID-19.

 

Author Biographies

Riecha Joshi, 1Final Year Medical Student, Government Medical College, Kota, Rajasthan, India

Final Year Medical Student

Rajendra Takhar, 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, Government Medical College, Kota, Rajasthan, India

MD Respiratory Medicine, Associate professor

Sanjay Jain, 3Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, NIMS Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

MD Preventive and Social Medicine, Assistant Professor

References

World Health Organization. Available at https://www.who.int/; Accessed on 31 July 2020.

COVID-19 Cases Tracker, 2020. Available at

https://www.covid19india.org. Accessed on 31 August 2020.

Mandal S, Bhatnagar T, Sarkar S. Prudent public health intervention strategies to control the coronavirus disease 2019 transmission in India: A mathematical model-based approach. IJMR. 2020;151:190-9.

Zhong BL, Luo W, Li HM, Zhang QQ, Liu XG, Li WT, Li Y. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among Chinese residents during the rapid rise period of the COVID-19 outbreak: a quick online cross-sectional survey. IJBS. 2020;16(10):1745.

Roy D, Tripathy S, Kar SK, Sharma N, Verma SK, Kaushal V. Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian J Psychiatry. 2020;51:102083.

Centre for Disease Control (CDC), 2020. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/. Accessed on 31 August 2020.

Maheshwari S, Gupta PK, Sinha R, Rawat P. Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among medical students: A cross-sectional study. J Acute Dis. 2020;9(3):100.

Agarwal V, Gupta L, Davalbhakta S, Misra D, Agarwal V, Goel A. Undergraduate medical students in India are underprepared to be the young-taskforce against Covid-19 amid prevalent fears. Medrxiv. 2020; PREPRINT.

Zhou M, Tang F, Wang Y, Nie H, Zhang L, You G, Zhang M. Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among healthcare workers in Henan, China. J Hospital Infec. 2020;105(2):183-7.

Maharshi V, Puja P, Jakhar DK, Singh V. Awareness among general public of India towards COVID-19 pandemic: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study, 2020.

Downloads

Published

2021-01-27

How to Cite

Joshi, R., Takhar, R., & Jain, S. (2021). Knowledge, attitude and practices associated with COVID-19 among undergraduate medical students of Rajasthan. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 8(2), 712–716. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20210226

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles