ABSTRACT
Introduction: During the current pandemic, threat perception of people during lockdown, any subsequent change in their behaviour , coping mechanisms along with lockdown compliance used to deal with the crisis in the Indian subcontinent have been important. The study aims to explore prevalence of perceived threat, behaviour change, lockdown compliance, and coping strategies amid COVID-19 outbreak in India. Methodology: This cross-sectional study used a semi-structured online questionnaire. Study applied non- probability snowball sampling technique for data collection. The survey questionnaire included four sections on (a) socio-demographic variables (b) perceived threat (c) lockdown compliance and behaviour change (d) coping strategies. Descriptive statistical analysis was done for the evaluation of data. Results: The responses of 1068 participants with a mean age of 32.92±12.88 years were included for analysis. Nearly half (51%) of the participants reported feeling 'very high' anxiety and about 34% reported to have 'high' anxiety about the spread of coronavirus, on the other hand many (41.6%) of them believed that they had very less chances of getting infected with coronavirus. A large population (89.3%) reported complying to the nationwide lockdown. The major coping mechanism being used by the people is distractions, socializing as well as adaptive coping mechanisms. Conclusion: In the current scenario, there is a concern for India, as due to surge in persons infected with COVID 19 and an indication towards 'optimism bias ' prevalent in people there are chances of poor compliance with government guidelines on behaviour change. The findings of the study will be helpful in designing programs and government measures for the people aimed at ensuring compliance with the guidelines related to social distancing and sanitization and using adaptive coping strategies