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

BACKGROUND: 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. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.