Gender and occupation predict Coronavirus Disease 2019 knowledge, attitude and practices of a cohort of a South Indian state population

Abstract

Context: Coronavirus disease 2019 (CoViD 19) pandemic has induced the government to initiate strict control measures. Improvements to these measures and shortcomings could be gleaned with the understanding of the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the public. Aims: The aim of this study the CoViD 19 KAP of a south Indian state population. Settings and Design: This was a Cross-sectional observational study. Subjects and Methods: We conducted an online survey to elicit this information. Statistical Analysis Used: Mean, Standard deviation, Binomial and Multinomial logistic regression. Results: Of the 1837 subjects who answered the survey, 70% were youth (16-29 years), 54% were postgraduates and 47.8% were desk jobholders. The mean knowledge score was 9.92 ± 2.37/14 and 94.44% secured at least above-average score. The subjects had a positive (70%) attitude towards the CoViD 19 situation and 77% of subjects followed good preventive practices. However, we found that women, people with low education and nonmedical background were associated with poor knowledge and practices. The attitude was poor in subjects occupant in physical works. Conclusions: The health policy would better serve the purpose of the groups with poor scores are targeted.