Abstract

Aayushi Rastogi, Akanksha Bansal*, Tarika Sharma and Sarita Ahwal

Background: Due to novel nature of the SARS-CoV-2, even the medical fraternity was struggling with the inaccurate and contradictory indications in initial weeks. With time, more information about the virus was known. At present, it is unclear whether emergence of new information about the virus resulted in change in knowledge, attitude and practice related to COVID-19 or not. Thus, this study aims to assess the change in knowledge, attitude and practice of healthcare workers towards COVID-19 over a period of time.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was undertaken among the in-service nursing professionals from April 15, 2020 to November 30, 2020. A pre-tested questionnaire was circulated among participants consisted 37 knowledge, attitude and practice related questions focusing on all aspects of prevention and management related to COVID-19. The data was extracted in excel sheet from Survey Monkey and analyses were performed using IBM SPSS-Version 22.

Results: A total 1,989 responses were included. Mean age of the participants was 30.33 ± 6.78 years with 74.16% were female participants. Mean knowledge score of the participants in during lockdown group was found to be 16.17 ± 3.09 out of 27 whereas in post lockdown group was found to be 16.66 ± 3.02; the difference between the two groups was found to be significantly different (<0.001). However, no significant difference was observed in attitude and practice of healthcare workers across these two groups.

Conclusion: Increase in knowledge related to COVID-19 was observed in healthcare workers post lockdown. However, there is a need for a specialized program for addressing the myths and misconceptions related to the novel virus.