Adherence to COVID appropriate behavior among medical students: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background and Objectives: India has seen a steep rise in COVID-19 cases driven by infections caused by the Omicron variant. Thus, there is an urgent need to scale up preventive measures or COVID appropriate behavior (CAB). It is essential to assess the CAB practices among the medical students as they are exposed not only to the patients by being in the hospital environment but also because lapse in such practices on part of these students can lead to increased number of infections. Hence, this study was planned to be conducted among medical students to assess the CAB practices. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted for the duration of 3 months at a Medical College in Chengalpet district, Tamil Nadu, among medical students using a semi-structured questionnaire in the Google form platform. It included various study variables, namely sociodemographic parameters and parameters related to CAB. Data were analyzed using the SPSS version 23. Results: A total of 364 students participated in the study. It was observed that most of the participants were satisfactorily practicing CAB, especially with regard to hand hygiene and use of face masks. Conclusion: The study revealed that the adherence to CAB among the medical students to be satisfactory in most areas of hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment. However, there is a lot of scope to improve in the domain of social distancing and safe disposal of used face masks.