Abstract

To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of medical students towards coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). METHODS: A self-designed questionnaire was developed and given to the students of ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, Chennai . The demographics, mean knowledge, attitude, and practice of the participants were investigated, and the scores were calculated. t-test and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. RESULT: Out of the 485 participants, 36.9% were males while the rest were female (63.1%); the majority of them were 21-23 years old while only 10.1% were >23 years old. Almost 80.4% of the participants belonged to the religion of ‘Hindu’ while only 2.3% belonged to the other religions. the high percentage of the students (74.6%) agreed that media coverage (e.g. newspaper, television, online) give much exposure to news about COVID-19 virus. In addition, the majority of the participants (74.5%) supported the lockdown of the major cities. A high percentage of the participants (70.9%) avoided unnecessary travel or outing during the outbreak. Maintaining social distance during the outbreak was the second most prevalent behavior reported by the participants. Also, a high percentage of participants used hand sanitizer, washed their hands, used a mask, covered a cough and sneeze with a tissue, which represented a good practice of the participants towards COVID-19. The knowledge scores of the male were slightly higher than that of females, although the difference was not significant (P>0.05). Higher scores of males were observed in the attitude and practice as compared with that of females, the difference was significant (P<0.05). In addition, the difference in practice score was not significant between different genders (P>0.05), therefore, it is recommended that females should pay more attention to practice towards COVID19. Secondly, the KAP score for the age-category of > 23 was higher than the other categories based on the practice score, although have more difference and significant difference among the age groups (P<0.05).With respect to the religions, participants belonging to the Islam religion had more knowledge in comparison with the Hindu, Christian, and others, although the difference was not significant (P>0.05). Also, the same trend was observed in the attitude scores, this difference was not significant (P>0.05). with respect to academic year of student participants belonging to CRRI had more knowledge and practice in compare with the others, although the difference was significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The majority of the participants had good knowledge, positive attitude, and sufficient practice. Females and males have significantly different practices. Although the results are very positive, it is suggested that people should continue to strengthen knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19, so that India can win the battle against the disease.

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