ABSTRACT
Background: The WHO declared COVID-19 infection as a pandemic in March 2020 due to high infectivity and wide information is freely available regarding precautionary measures. Every sector of the society must follow the preventive steps in the absence of proper drugs or vaccines. There is a need to assess the awareness level and precautionary measures adopted by the different sectors of the society. Hence, we planned this comparative study among students of health and engineering professionals. Methodology: This cross-sectional survey was conducted among medical and engineering students from one of the respective college of Wardha district (July-September 2020). Second class randomly selected and all students, i.e., 200 from each faculty were involved. Questionnaire was prepared by referring guidelines of the World Health Organization and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for preventive measures toward COVID-19 pandemic, shared by internet and Chi-square test applied. Results: One hundred and seventy-eight medical and 176 engineering students responded (response rate-89%). Significantly high numbers of medical students (84%) were well aware with various modes of infection spread than engineering (40%-68%) (P = 0.0001). Seventy-four percent engineering as compared to 53% medical students recognized >3 feet as safe social distance (P = 0.01) and sincerely maintained by engineering students (69.32%) more often than medical (55.6%) (P = 0.01);whereas wearing mask for outdoor activity was practiced more frequently by medical (76.97%) than engineering (52.84%) (P = 0.0001). About 29% both group students never moved out from home. 50% medical and 37% engineering students were moved out occasionally before survey and mostly for purchasing daily needs. Conclusion: Overall, there is gap in complete chain of knowledge about novel coronavirus among both the groups. There is a significant difference in awareness and practices adopted by both professional students toward COVID-19 pandemic. High awareness and safe practices may be expected for medical background, but contrast findings for some markers were observed. The mode of IEC should be robust, more modified, or innovative. © 2022 Journal of Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences University ;Published by Wolters Kluwer-Medknow.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: After declaration of COVID-19 infection as pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO), various preventive strategies have been intended to mitigate disease spread and control the infection rate such as isolation of patients, social distancing, hygienic practices;covering mouth and nose, restriction of mass gathering in society. Hence we planned this survey to assess the knowledge and preventive measures adopted by students to control COVID-19 infection during lockdown. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among students of School of Allied Health Sciences, DMIMS, Wardha during April-May 2020. First year was selected randomly and all 168 students were approached by internet for sharing questionnaire after IEC approval. Received responses is analysed in the form of descriptive statistics. Results: Total 139 students responded. 38.85% students understood the relationship between mass gathering and transmission of COVID-19 infection at community level. Only 34(24.46%) students were aware about safe social distance. Less than half of the students 66(47.48%) were aware about minimum 20 seconds needed to hand-rub by the alcohol based sanitizer. About 108(77.7%) students maintained the social distancing sincerely, only 74(52.5%) students always used to wear the mask and;100(71.94%) participants always used to wash their hands. Conclusions: Though some of the students adopted standards practices, others observed to be considering it as less important. Such survey can be conducted among in various institutions to assess the awareness and shortfall in practices. Awareness level can be raised through dedicated online awareness program. © 2021, Institute of Medico-Legal Publications. All rights reserved.