Use of mask at public places among health care professionals following COVID-19 postquarantine period in Southern Haryana, India

Abstract

Introduction: The instances of social stigma and violence against health care worker was already prevalent but during COVID-19, such instances have reached its peak. So, this global health crisis of COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to investigate the level of perceptions and practices regarding use of mask or personnel protective equipment (PPE) in public places amongst health care professionals following COVID-19 postquarantine period. Materials and Methods: The study included 100 health care personnel working in COVID-19 outpatient and wards as participants who have completed their quarantine period after being sent on quarantine at home/hostels or state-run facilities during the 3rd week of June 2020. After obtaining informed consent from participants, a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. All the tests were performed at significance level of 5%. Results: More than two third of the participants (69.0%) were using mask/PPE at all in public places. Around two third of participants were willing to wear mask/PPE in public places like local markets/street (64.0%); bus/train/flight (74.0%); institution/college (61.0%) and malls/shopping complex (73.0%). Only 58.0% of study participants were having overall good perception score for wearing mask/PPE. Conclusions: The present study made an attempt to find out the perceptions and practices of health care personnel regarding mask/PPE use while they are in public place and it was observed that perception and practices were not satisfactory in this regard. The need of hour is psychological support for health care workers to overcome such stigma fear and the findings might help local administration to enhance that support.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• healthcare worker
• perception
• stigma