Assessing Clinical Knowledge and Practice towards COVID-19 – A Cross Sectional Community Study

Objectives: This study was aimed to investigate the knowledge and practice about COVID-19 among adults living in capital of Telangana, India. Methods: A cross sectional web based online study was conducted over a period of 3 months from April to June using structured self- administered online questionnaires. We targeted adults living in Hyderabad using convenience sampling technique. A total of 384 respondents completed the study questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the status of knowledge, attitude, and practices. Results: Most of the respondents were male (65.1%) aged between 21-30 years (220 out of 384). The most common source of information for the COVID-19 was social media (50.7%). Almost 78% of the respondents were known that COVID-19 associated with dry cough, body pains and fever. Also majority of them were knew that disease can transfer from the infected patients (87%), while most of them (85%) were agreed that wearing facemask can help in controlling the infection. Almost all (92%) of the respondents agreed that isolation and treatment of COVID-19 patients may help in controlling the spread of virus. There was a significant difference among the attitudes of the participants about covid-19 (p <.001). Conclusion: In conclusion current study findings reveled that Indian residents of a telangana state, have had adequate knowledge, attitudes, and acceptable practices towards COVID-19.