Publication:

Assessment of knowledge and practices of urban population regarding COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in Bikaner, Rajasthan

Background Corona virus disease (COVID-19) is declared pandemic by the WHO.  It is a very contagious disease. The global mortality rate of Corona virus disease is around 3.1%. The study was conducted with aim to assess the knowledge and practices towards Corona virus disease among urban population. Awareness towards the disease is important for prevention and control.

Methods The research design was community based descriptive cross-sectional design. The study was conducted in selected urban communities of Bikaner district, Rajasthan. A structured knowledge questionnaire and Practice scale were distributed to subjects from March 2020 to April 2020. In present study, 327 subjects were included in the study by random sampling technique. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 22.0.

Results In the present study, 56.27% were male and 43.73% were female. Nearly 70% participants were graduate and above in educational status. In present study, mostly subjects (76%) have average to good knowledge and practice towards COVID-19. Finding of the study suggests that there was a weak correlation between knowledge and practices of urban people towards corona virus infection. The correlation was not significant (p value=0.1976) at 0.05 level of significance. The study also revealed that knowledge has association with only educational qualification and gender shown association with practices of urban population.

Conclusions Knowledge and practices among population towards the disease are crucial to minimize morbidity and mortality due to the disease. The people have knowledge towards corona virus infection but they are not implementing it into practice.