Knowledge, Anxiety level and Perceptions on Prevention Protocol of COVID19 among Medical and Dental Graduates

Abstract

Aim To study the knowledge, anxiety level and perceptions on prevention protocol towards COVID19
among medical and dental students.
Methodology: The study population was under graduate and post graduate students of medical and dental
colleges of India whose conventional academic curriculum was withdrawn due to COVID19 lockdown.
An online semi-structured questionnaire was developed based on Current interim guidelines for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and WHO and circulated. This online self-reported questionnaire contained
the following three sections related to knowledge anxiety and perception on prevention protocol among
medical and dental students. . There were 7 multiple choice questions in the knowledge section. Anxiety
related section and perception on prevention protocol related to novel coronavirus contained 9 items that
were to be rated in the 5-point Likert scale. The data was statistically analysed.
Result: Around 52% of the students have good knowledge about COVID19 transmission and diagnosis.
Most of the students (55.7%) are comfortable with their virtual classrooms and around 54.5% of students
showed self-interest to volunteer patient care without more anxiety. Over 42.2% of students needed faculty
supervision and other health professionals acting within their scope of practice and around 82% of students
wanted to follow strict preventive protocols to protect themselves from COVID19 infection.
Conclusion : Most of the students are having good knowledge about COVID19 even though they are
anxious about their academic curriculum and risk of exposure at present situation. The perception on
prevention protocol evaluation showed that there should be strong need to implement infection control
measures for COVID19 across all healthcare institutions.