Abstract

Background: The recently surfaced infectious disease SARS-CoV-2 caused by novel corona virus was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Despite the entire endeavor, it has rapidly infected nearly 200 countries and millions of deaths while many more is counting. In Nepal, the first case had appeared in late January 2020. Till now the lack of knowledge and lack of safe practices are main reason of the spread the pandemic world-wide. Our study aims to assess the Nepalese’s knowledge, attitude regarding COVID-19 and its preventive practices.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March 28^th to April 8^th, 2020. A total of 114 Nepalese residents were selected using convenience sampling method. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaires (SAQ) containing 16 knowledge questions and 3-point Likert scale to acknowledge attitude and practices regarding COVID-19 was used for data collection. Chi-square test as Bivariate analysis and Linear regression models as multivariate analysis were used to assess association between KAP.

Results: The mean knowledge score was 10.20 ± 2.06 (range 0 - 16), indicating moderate level of Knowledge. Majority of participants were well aware about symptoms (91.2%), route of transmission (80.7%), however less of them had correct concept regarding preventive measures and control measures. Similarly mean attitude score (4.72 ± 1.37, range: 2 - 6) and mean practice score (4.34 ± 1.401, range: 0 - 6) showed positive, optimistic attitude and good practices. Subjects with adequate level of knowledge score had more good practices.

Conclusion: Our study showed that knowledge towards COVID-19 was average with good practices and positive attitude among Nepalese. Utility of considerable knowledge, positive attitude and good practices may aid to control the pandemic.

Keywords: Attitude; COVID-19; Knowledge; Pandemic; Practices

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Citation

Citation: Avinash Chandra., et al. “Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Towards Covid-19 in Nepal: A Cross-sectional Study". Acta Scientific Neurology 3.11 (2020): 68-79.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Avinash Chandra., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.