Perceptions And Practices Towards Protective Measures During Covid-19 Pandemic Among Outpatients, Chennai

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: COVID 19  virus started in December 2019  as a viral outbreak in Wuhan city of central Hubei province of china. A study was done to  assess attitude and practice of protective measures during covid 19 pandemic among out patients in Chennai .

MATERIAL AND METHOD: An interview type survey was conducted among 117 outpatients in Saveetha Dental College Chennai.  Demographic details  and the questions based on protective measures, anxiety, mental care during covid 19 pandemic were also included in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were done to analyse the collected data.

RESULTS: About  98.29% of the respondents felt the need to use gloves/sanitizers. Around 72.65% feel paranoid about contacting the corona virus infection.  About 69.23%  reported  that they are sometimes affected by the talks of the coronavirus pandemic on the newspaper and news channels. Awareness of the need for sanitizers / gloves was more among graduated study participants (p value - 0.000). Awareness about the need to wash hands frequently was more among  males (p value - 0.248)

CONCLUSION: It can be concluded from the study that the majority of the study participants were aware about protective measures during covid 19 pandemic, followed government guidelines on quarantine and social distancing covid 19 pandemic.