Corona health‑care warriors in India: knowledge, attitude, and practices during COVID‑19 outbreak

COVID‑19 has become a global health emergency after its first case in Wuhan city, China. An increasing number of cases and deaths are challenging the health‑care system globally. This study aims to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID‑19 disease among health personnel in rapid outbreak in India.

A cross‑sectional survey was conducted using Google Forms through Google platform on-line. A total of 713 health personal allied health‑care staff, working in different public and private health‑care facilities, was conducted in the mid of April 2020. A structured knowledge, attitude, and practice questionnaire used to assess health personnel’s knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID‑19. All instruments were validated and pretested before use. Chi‑square test, followed by binary logistic and multivariate regression, was applied to determine factors associated with knowledge scores.

Seven hundred and thirteen health personnel participated, and 703 (98.6%) participants responded were analyzed for final results. 95.9% of the health personnel were aware about route of transmission and clinical symptoms (95.3%) of COVID‑19. 63.7% believed that virus outbreak would be controlled globally and followed standard precautions (81.8%), including wearing the mask. Further, majority (98.3%) of the participants avoided social contact by not going to crowded places and not calling people to their homes (82.2%) during the advisory of the government. In binary logistic regression analyses, the adequate knowledge score found significantly associated with MBBS/bachelor’s degree (odds ratio [OR]: 2.309, confidence interval [CI]: 1.232–4.324, P < 0.009) and master’s degree (OR: 2.944, CI: 1.485–5.835, P < 0.002), working with government health‑care facility (OR: 3.662, CI: 1.624–8.285, P < 0.002), and holding a post of a physician (OR: 7.735, CI: 2.210–27.091, P < 0.001) during outbreak.

The level of education is associated with adequate knowledge scores among the health personnel. Type of health‑care facility and post held in a health‑care facility are significant predictors of adequacy of knowledge.