Khyati Gagan Kalra1, Vaishali Praful Bansod2, Shraddha Shripad Kulkarni3, Parvinder Singh Chawla4
BACKGROUND
As of 29th June 2021, 182,261,516 total cases of Covid-19 with 3,947,170 deaths
have been reported worldwide from 218 countries, out of which 30,316,897 Covid-
19 cases and 397,668 deaths are from India.1 Maharashtra contributing 19,16,236
cases and 49,189 deaths.2 Hands are one of the main pathways of transmission
of the virus. All out efforts have been made by the Governments and health
agencies to increase awareness on hand hygiene among general population.
However, it is felt that compliance of general population to hand hygiene is poor.
So, this study was carried out to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices
(KAP) of hand hygiene to prevent the spread of corona virus, among general
population during pandemic.
METHODS
A cross sectional study was carried out among general population aged 15 years
and above through an online survey obtaining the data by a predesigned google
form and analysed using Epi Info V7.
RESULTS
513 individuals from 17 states of India responded. Participation was almost equal
in both genders (47.6 % male and 52.4 % females). Majority of the participants
(65 %) had good knowledge regarding modes of transmission. In this study, online
platforms and doctors emerged to be the most common source of Covid related
information. 79.14 % participants had knowledge regarding hand hygiene as an
important method of prevention of Covid infection. But only 14.8 % knew the
exact time to be devoted towards hand hygiene. Majority had favourable attitude
and practices towards hand hygiene. 80.15 % participants from urban area told
that 20 - 30 seconds as minimum time for alcohol-based sanitizer to kill most
germs on hands which was found statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONS
Majority of participants had good knowledge, favourable attitude and practices
regarding hand hygiene as a mode of prevention for Covid-19 infection during this
ongoing pandemic situation. Still continuous and more detailed demonstrations of
hand washing as well as time to be devoted to hand washing and use of sanitizer
is required to break chain of transmission and contain Covid-19 disease.
