Indian community's knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented human health consequences. It is imperative to understand the society's awareness toward knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) level and the extent of measures required by health authorities. Aims and Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the KAP of the general public of India on COVID-19. In this study, a web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between March 10 and April 18, 2020. Materials and Method: A 19-item questionnaire was generated using Google Forms and distributed through social media networks via snowball sampling technique. The Chi-square test was used to compare categorical data, and multiple linear regression was used to identify factors influencing KAP. Result: Among 7978 participants, the overall KAP score was 80.64%, 97.33%, and 93.8%, respectively. In multiple linear regression analysis, male gender (β = 0.036: P < 0.001), urban population (β = 0.006: P < 0.002), higher education (β = 0.029: P < 0.001), and higher occupation (β = 0.002: P = 0.05) were associated significantly with high knowledge score. There was a positive significant correlation between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and practice, and attitude and practice. Conclusion: The KAP level among the general public was adequate, however there is a necessity to target specific category population with tailored health education program to ameliorate the level of knowledge and attitude. knowledge and attitude.

Keywords

• attitude
• covid-19
• india
• knowledge
• pandemic
• practice