Open AccessPoor social distancing attitudes and practices may drive community transmission of COVID-19 – A Knowledge Attitude Practice study among the general population of Odisha, India
Author(s) -
Jyotiranjan Sahoo,
Sandeep Kumar Panigrahi,
Venkatarao Epari
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
indian journal of community health/indian journal of community health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.149
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 2248-9509
pISSN - 0971-7587
DOI - 10.47203/ijch.2021.v33i04.018
Subject(s) - social distance , medicine , isolation (microbiology) , pandemic , population , quarantine , transmission (telecommunications) , family medicine , social isolation , social media , health education , covid-19 , environmental health , nursing , public health , disease , psychiatry , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , political science , law , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , engineering , electrical engineering
Background: Knowledge, attitude, and practice of the community can determine progress from localized to community transmission of COVID-19 in India. Aims and Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice levels of the general population during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A rapid cross-sectional survey was conducted among hospital visitors of a lead tertiary care hospital. Realtime data collection from 223 respondents was done and analyzed using Stata 12.1 SE. Results: Mean age was 38.2 ±13.5 years, 68.2% were males, mean education was 12.1 ± 3.7 years and 45.3% were gainfully employed. Almost all had heard about CORONA (221, 99.1%). Adequate knowledge was present on: a) mode of spread (48.0%); b) preventive measures (70.9%). Television (77.1%), social media (60.5%) and WhatsApp (44.0%) were sources of information. Positive attitude was seen for: a) wearing a mask (83.9%); b) health-seeking (85%) on presenting with symptoms; c) Self-isolation or home-quarantine (20%). Adequate knowledge towards the mode of spread, symptoms and control measures or positive attitudes for health-seeking were found to positively translate into correct practices (p?0.001). Conclusion: Attitudes and practices of social distancing, self-isolation or home-quarantine were not adequate to prevent the epidemic progress in India.