An Epidemiological Study To Assess The Knowledge, Attitude And Practices Of University And School Students Of Chandigarh Towards Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction

COVID-19 is an acute respiratory illness with viral pneumonia-like symptoms that emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China, in December 2019[1]. World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30^th January 2020 and called for collaborative efforts of all countries to prevent its rapid spread. It was declared as a global pandemic by WHO on 8^th March 2020 [2] [3]. In India, the first case got reported in Trissur, Kerala, on 27^th January 2020, in a 20-year- old lady with a travel history to China [4]. The fight against COVID -19 is still continuing in India and other countries. Citizens’ knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 control measures is crucial. During the pandemic, in India complete lockdown was imposed in March 2020, which continued till May 2020 to stop the chain of transmission of COVID-19. During the lockdown, all schools, along with other teaching institutions, were closed [5], and classroom teaching at school was replaced by online teaching. Lockdown was being gradually lifted with the phase-wise resumption of activities by unlock 1(June 2020), unlock 2(July 2020), unlock 3(August 2020), unlock 4 (September 2020), and unlock 5 from 15th October 2020 with phase wise resumption of activities [6]. This study was planned to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices of school and university students regarding COVID-19. Understanding the knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding COVID-19 among schools & universities will provide a basis for formulating relevant policies and directions to the health education department for the resumption of classes.

Objectives

1. To assess the knowledge of COVID-19 among school and university students.
2. To measure the attitude of school and university students toward COVID-19.
3. To observe the COVID-19 preventive measures protocols practiced by the school and university students.

Material and Methodology

Study design: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Sampling design: The participants were recruited through a convenient sampling technique. Study area: Research was conducted among the Students of Panjab University and Ankur School of Chandigarh. Sample size: The sample size was 150 students, of which 100 students were from a University and 50 from a School, Chandigarh. Study Tool: The data was collected through a self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire from the participants in online mode. Forms were circulated via an online portal named Google Forms to maintain the norms of lockdown.

Data analysis After collecting the required information from the subjects, the data was entered in the coded form in an Excel sheet. MS Excel 2019 was used for statistical analysis. Keeping in mind the study’s objectives, the data was coded for analysis. Frequency tables and graphs were developed to display the data and to explain and discuss the results.

Results

The data was analyzed regarding demographic variables such as age, gender, educational qualification, and name of the institution of respondents.

Table 1 shows that few (20%) respondents were in the age group of 5-15 years, many (66.7%) of respondents were in the age group of 15-25 years, and the remaining (13.3%) respondents belonged to the age group of above 25 years.

Table 2 shows that more than 90% of respondents gave correct answers to 6 questions related to the knowledge about COVID-19. Most respondents (98%) had heard about the pandemic. Most participants were aware of the options (96.7%) and preventive measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 (96.7%). More than half (58.7%) of the respondents were aware of the modes of transmission of COVID-19.

Table 3 shows that 82% of the participants were ready to accept isolation if infected with COVID-19. Most participants (86.7%) were worried about their family members getting affected. Many participants (75.3%) believed COVID-19 could not affect young people. More than half of the participants (53.3%) believed that eating garlic would not prevent infection with the new coronavirus. A majority (77.7%) of participants supported the government's decision to a 21-day lockdown.

Table 4 shows that most of the participants (82.7%) did not participate in meetings, religious activities, events, and other social gatherings in areas with ongoing COVID-19 community transmission. The majority of participants (96.7%) wore masks while leaving home. Most of the participants (94.7%) maintained hand hygiene by washing their hands frequently and using sanitizer. 83.3% of participants always maintained physical distancing. It was reported that 95.3% of the participants listened and followed the direction of their state and local authorities.

Discussion

COVID-19 is an emerging infectious illness which presented a considerable threat to human beings in the past years. Before the advent of vaccination for COVID-19, preventive measures played an effective role in decreasing the rate of infection and controlling the spread of the virus. Therefore, it became necessary for public health professionals to target the student population and to understand their knowledge, attitude, and practices towards COVID-19 to limit its spread.

The present study reported that most of the university students had adequate knowledge about COVID-19. More than half of the participants were aware of the COVID-19 etiology and management. This finding agreed with other previous studies that reported significant levels of knowledge among the North Indian people [7]. Similarly, in our study, it was reported that the basic knowledge of COVID-19 among students of Panjab University and Ankur School was acceptable. The high score of knowledge about COVID-19 among the participants was not surprising as there was an intensive spread of awareness about COVID-19 and its transmission via social media, news channels, and television. In a study conducted in Malaysia, a positive association was found between knowledge and individual educational background, which supported our findings [8] [9].

The attitude of the participants toward COVID-19 was found to be positive. The students were aware of the etiology, and mode of transmission of the virus and recommended methods for the isolation of patients with confirmed COVID-19. Also, Most of the participants showed a positive attitude towards following the best-preferred methods of protection, while some of them showed a negative attitude.

In a previous study conducted in North India, students’ attitudes were reported to be positive and optimistic towards COVID-19. The results show the gap in students’ attitudes towards hand hygiene, which enables health educators to design training programs to educate students to improve their attitudes towards adequate hand washing techniques [10].

COVID-19 illness could be prevented by following appropriate protective measures. In our study, we also evaluated the extent of protective measures followed by various students. The study found that the participants had a good routine of following all the protective measures, such as wearing of face mask, hand washing, social distancing, etc. The results were consistent with the other studies, which also reported adequate levels of protective measures followed by the students [8]. If all the students would achieve complete knowledge about COVID-19 related to its etiology, mode of transmission, and other preventive measures, it will help the Chandigarh health authorities to increase public awareness of the disease at a greater level and would able to bring behavioral change among the residents of Chandigarh.

With these findings, it has been shown that the extent of student’s knowledge about the virus could be very useful. This knowledge gained by students could supplement different health authorities in mitigating the effects of COVID-19, especially when WHO declared it a pandemic disease. The potentialities and capabilities of youth could be utilized by the specialists in designing various health education and awareness programs to disseminate knowledge of this deadly virus.

Conclusion

The study concluded that the students had adequate knowledge and a positive attitude and followed good practices to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 illness. Hence, they could be used as a potential resource by the higher authorities to increase public awareness of the etiology, mode of transmission, and preventive measures of the disease.

Ethical approval

The data was collected after taking informed consent from all the participants by explaining to them the purpose of the study.

Conflict of Interest

None

Author’s Contribution

The conception and design of the work were done by all the authors. The first author did the data collection. The first author made data analysis and interpretations. The final version of this research paper has been approved by all the authors.

Acknowledgment

None

Source of funding

None

References

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