Assessment of knowledge and perceptions about covid-19, it’s prevention & control among medical students in a tertiary care hospital, Kurnool

Introduction: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by Novel-coronavirus. The virus spreads through droplets of saliva or from the nose of infected person. The best way to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 is, be well informed about the cause, spread and prevention. Medical students with good knowledge regarding disease can serve as information providers to the community. Objectives: To assess the knowledge and perceptions regarding COVID-19 among medical students, so as to involve them in prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: Cross-Sectional Web-based study, conducted during September 2020 among Undergraduate medical students, Kurnool medical college. Sample size was 400 using formula 4pq/l2, (p -50%, l as 10% of p); 100 per each professional year have been included in the study and data was obtained by structured questionnaire based on W.H.O course materials on COVID-19. Analysis done by Microsoft excel 2010 & SPSS Version 21. Chi-square test & One-way Anova tests were applied for statistical significance. Results: A total of 400 medical students participated, 56.25% were males. Mean age of the participants was 21.19±1.84yrs. Majority (80%) of the students have good knowledge about causative agent, infectious nature of disease, incubation period and those who are at risk. All the participants were aware of the symptoms of COVID-19. Social media was reported as the predominant source of information (95.5%) and 58% of the study participants attended awareness programme conducted in the college. Conclusion: Medical students had adequate awareness about COVID-19. Social media was the main source of information. Study revealed gaps in the knowledge of students about diagnosis and prevention. The current study identifies that students can be used as information providers to the community after addressing the gaps in their knowledge through orientation programmes.