Abstract
Data regarding knowledge and attitude about COVID-19, the prevalence of acceptance of hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis and anxiety amidst COVID-19 pandemic among health care students/professionals in India is scarce. A cross-sectional study was conducted during May 2020, using an online survey via Google forms. A self-administered validated structured questionnaire was applied, which comprised 28 questions among health care students/professionals at a tertiary care centrein North India. A total of 956 respondents were included (10.2% nurses, 45.2% medical students, 24.3% paramedical students, 11.7% resident doctors and 8.6% consultant doctors). Overall knowledge score was 9.3/15; the highest for preventive practices (4/5), followed by clinical knowledge (2.7/5) and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) (2.6/5). The overall score was the highest in consultant doctors (10.8) while the lowest in nurses (8.5) and paramedical students (8.4) (p < 0.001). Less than half of the respondents had knowledge about the correct sequence of doffing PPE and the use of N95 mask. About 21.8% of the participants experienced moderate to severe anxiety; higher among nurses (38%), followed by paramedical students (29.3%); and anxiety was higher when knowledge score was low (27.6% vs 14.7%); both factors were independent predictors on multivariate analysis (p < 0.001). Only 18.1% of the respondents applied HCQ prophylaxis - the highest proportion constituted consultants (42.7%), and the least - paramedical students (5.2%); (p < 0.001) and HCQ use was more frequently used if they had a family member of extreme age group at home (23.3% vs 12.2%; p < 0.001). The knowledge about correct PPE usage is low among all groups of HCWs and students, and there is a high prevalence of anxiety due to COVID-19. The lower COVID-19 knowledge scores were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of anxiety and inadequate use of HCQ prophylaxis. The appliance of HCQ prophylaxis had no significant association with anxiety levels of the respondents.
Highlights
Data regarding knowledge and attitude about COVID-19, the prevalence of acceptance of hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis and anxiety amidst COVID-19 pandemic among health care students/professionals in India is scarce
The questionnaire was designed after detailed literature search on the disease, including updated information provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and other societies’ guidelines [1, 6, 7]
A similar trend of the association was seen when analysed for differences in scores related to knowledge of clinical aspects of the disease and related preventive practices
Summary
Data regarding knowledge and attitude about COVID-19, the prevalence of acceptance of hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis and anxiety amidst COVID-19 pandemic among health care students/professionals in India is scarce. The disease was declared a pandemic on March 11th, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1].The virus was initially named 2019-nCOV and subsequently, the name was changed to SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses [2]. This is a highly contagious virus and community transmission has been witnessed by many countries worldwide. There is very scarce data from Indian perspective regarding knowledge, awareness, anxiety and the use of HCQ prophylaxis related to COVID-19 among health care workers
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