A multistate study of knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding corona virus disease-19 among Veterinary Professionals and Scholars in India

Abstract

Present investigation was planned to access knowledge attitude and practices of veterinary professionals and scholars of India. A total of 385 responses were received. The results revealed that biggest number of participants was found to be from Central followed by North, Western, Southern, Eastern and Northeast zone of the country as 31.95 per cent, 24.68 per cent, 14.03 per cent, 13.25 per cent, 8.57 per cent and 7.53 per cent, respectively. The major source of information of respondents regarding COVID-19 was television (36.62%) followed by internet (28.57%), social media (19.48%), newspaper (12.20%) and webinars (3.11%). The majority of respondents were male (58.70%) and belongs to young age group (66.49%). Most of the respondents had an educational level of masters (41.04%), trailed by doctorates (32.99%). With regards to occupation, more than half of participants (52.21%) were professionals followed by scholars (47.79%) and about 70.65 per cent of participants belong to urban areas. The respondents were having good knowledge regarding COVID-19 which is important and useful to combat the pandemic. The majority of the respondents fall under the category of medium knowledge score (63.0%) followed by low (26.0%) and high knowledge score (11.0%). Most of the participants have positive attitude regarding control of disease and majority of them practice standard operating procedure (SOP) to prevent the infection. Vets are advised to follows the guidance provided by centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) for veterinary clinics. Moreover, this threat of COVID-19 may continues to be emerge, specifically in different forms, types of strains, so greater efforts should be made using educational campaigns through extension workers in order to strengthen effective health education among professionals and allied to save the society as a whole.