Knowledge and attitude towards covid-19 among healthcare workers of a tertiary care hospital in India

Dixit, A.; Singh, A. V.; Singh, C. V.; Yadav, R.; Singh, S. K.

ICOVID-19 has involved serious occupational health risk to the health care professionals who are frequently exposed to infected individuals. Knowledge and attitude among health care professionals can prevent the spread of COVID-19. The present study was aimed to identify the current status of knowledge and attitude regarding COVID-19 among healthcare professionals in a tertiary care hospital. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted among medical staff (doctors, nurses and lab technicians) in a tertiary care hospital to assess the knowledge and attitude toward COVID-19 among healthcare workers. The questionnaire comprised of three sections (demographic, knowledge and attitude) for data collections. Non parametric tests and Pearson correlation was used to analyze data using R (The comprehensive R archive network) version 3.6.2. Of the 117 respondents, 46.15% were doctors, 25.64% nurses and 28.20% technical staff. On data analysis, 94% were in good knowledge category, 6% had poor knowledge and 100% had positive attitude. In the knowledge section, median value for doctors was higher than nurses and technical staff (P = 0.02). Doctors showed higher median values for attitude than nurses and technical staffs (P = 0.02). A weak positive correlation, r(115)=.20, p=.0299 was evidenced between knowledge and attitude for COVID-19. Present study shows that the health care workers of a tertiary care institute had good knowledge and positive attitude towards COVID-19, though in some areas the knowledge and attitude was observed low. The study also observes that there is need for continuous teaching and training programs.