Knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards COVID-19 among blood donors during the COVID-19 outbreak

Background: Assessments of the blood donors’ knowledge, attitudes, practices, and perceptions of this infection are essential for controlling the spread of COVID-19. Aim and objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the KAP among blood donors towards COVID 19 pandemic and how to increase the number of blood donations during pandemic. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among 630 blood donors at the Department of Transfusion Medicine, at a tertiary care center in North India. It was an observational study. Statistical analysis: The data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and MannWhitney test. To correlate variables Chi-square test was used. Results: The knowledge score of demographic variables marital status, education & occupation showed a significant association, while its association with age, gender, and religion was insignificant. The entire demographic variables under study showed a significant association with Attitude questionnaire 1. According to univariate analysis, the variables Intercept, Unemployed and Physical Labour showed significant impact on knowledge level with the corresponding effect size 0.10 and 0.022. Conclusions: This study reveals that blood donors have good knowledge with positive attitudes and practices. By improving the knowledge with the help of health education platforms, the number of blood donations will also increase.

Disparity in Relation to Covid-19 Preventive Behaviour and Associated Myths among Rural and Urban Residents of Lucknow: A Community Based Study

Introduction: For curbing Covid-19 disease, adequate knowledge, attitude, and practices of both rural and urban population for Covid-19 disease prevention is required along with busting of the associated myths. Objectives: To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of urban and rural residents of Lucknow district regarding covid-19 preventive behaviour and associated myths. Methodology: A community-based study was conducted among 420 rural and 421 urban residents of Lucknow. Multistage random sampling was done to select the study subjects. A pre-designed pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the information regarding the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of the residents for covid19 disease causes, prevention, and treatment. Further, KAP scoring was done to compare the two groups. Results: The mean age of the rural and urban residents was 31.48 ± 12.05 and 30.93 ± 11.96 years respectively. Only 40.4 % urban and 25.5 % rural people had correct knowledge about social distancing (p<0.0001). Knowledge regarding quarantine for covid-19 disease prevention was less among the urban residents (64.6%) as compared to rural (70.5%) (p=0.035). More than one-third (37.6%) of the rural resident believed in the myth that alcohol can prevent the covid-19 disease (p=0.003). 68.8 and 70.5 percent rural and urban residents had positive attitude towards the Indian government’ efforts in curbing the disease. Majority of the urban (90%) and rural (87.6%) residents wore mask when they went out. Only one-fourth of the urban (24.7%) and rural (22.9%) had correct practices for the duration of hand washing. Conclusion: The knowledge was more among the urban people, attitude and practices were almost similar among both the rural and urban residents while myths were more observed among the rural residents.

Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices Among Patients with Thyroid Swelling Attending Cytology Clinic in a Medical College, Meerut.

Background: Thyroid disorders are believed to be a common health issue in India, as it is worldwide. However, there is a paucity of data on the knowledge, awareness, and practices (KAP) among these patients. Materials and methods: A crosssectional study was conducted in a medical college of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. Total 200 patients were evaluated during the period from 2011 to 2012. Results: Total 200 patients with thyroid swelling were evaluated. Sixty percent patients did not know that thyroid is a normal gland in body while 50% did not knew about hyper/hypothyroidism. There are many misconceptions regarding thyroid disorders, such as 79.5% patients thought that hypothyroidism causes excessive weight gain. Conclusion: This study shows that patients with thyroid disorders lack knowledge. Education should take place at all levels and should include doctors and decision makers, health workers, and citizen groups. The results of this study will help the physician to concentrate on these specific issues during their interaction with the patients.