Awareness, perception, and mitigating measures on COVID‑19: Do we still need to educate our masses on COVID‑19?
Volume 11, Issue 6, July 2021, Pages 1-10
. Mukesh Bairwa, . Rajesh Kumar, . Poonam Yadav, . Yogesh Bahurupi, . Ravi Kant
Abstract BACKGROUND: COVID‑19 was declared an emergency of international concern by the World Health
Organization in 2020. This study assesses patients’ awareness, perception, and mitigating measures
taken during the COVID‑19 outbreak visiting an apex tertiary health‑care center in North India.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross‑sectional study was conducted between September 15,
2020, and November 15, 2020, in a tertiary care public hospital, North India, using a structured
self‑administered questionnaire. The survey included 809 patients using a consecutive sampling
strategy. The self‑structured and prevalidated questionnaire was used to collect information on
study variables. Chi‑square test and independent samples t‑test, followed by binary and multivariate
logistic regression, was used to determine the factors associated with awareness toward COVID‑19.
RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 32.41 (±11.24) years. Multivariate logistic regression
shows that married participants (OR: 0.660, 95 % CI: 0.440-0.989, P= 0.044), reading books/
magazine or attended institutional lectures (OR: 2.241, 95% CI: 1.545–3.249, P = 0.001), and watching
television and radio (OR: 1.824, 95% CI: 1.283–2.592, P = 0.001) are significantly more aware than
their counterparts. Participants with higher income group (>20,000 Indian rupee) significantly had
higher awareness than participants having salary <10,000 rupees (OR: 0.280, 95% CI: 0.178–0.440,
P = 0.001) or 10,001–20,000 rupees (OR: 0.481, 95% CI: 0.297–0.777, P = 0.003). Patients
avoiding traveling across or abroad had significantly much reasonably good awareness than their
counterparts (OR: 0.357, 95% CI: 0.139–0.918, P = 0.033).
CONCLUSIONS: Participants demonstrated good awareness, encouraging perception, and complied
with appropriate mitigating measures during the outbreak. Considering frequent waves and the
pandemic’s long duration, consistent reinforcement of government measures, including masks,
maintaining social distance, and frequent handwashing, is much needed.