A Comparative Study on Knowledge and Attitude related to COVID-19 disease among general public residing in selected Urban and Rural areas

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 is an emerging respiratory infection that was first discovered in December 2019, in Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the larger family of ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, leading to infections, from the common cold, to more serious diseases, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). The main symptoms of COVID-19 have been identified as fever, dry cough, fatigue, myalgia, shortness of breath, and dyspnoea. COVID-19 is characterized by rapid transmission, and can occur by close contact with an infected person. The details on the disease are evolving, by the end of January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a public health emergency of international concern and called for the collaborative effort of all countries, to prevent its rapid spread. The aimed of the study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices related to Covid-19 among urban and rural population.  Methodology: The study was conducted at selected urban and rural areas, by using Descriptive survey research design. Total 200 samples were selected by using non probability convenient sampling technique. The population for the present study were general public residing in selected urban and rural area. Results: assessment of knowledge regarding COVID-19, shows that 63% population in rural area had poor average knowledge and 89% had average knowledge about it. The 89% rural people had unfavorable attitude about covid 19, and 59% had neutral attitude seen in urban population. Conclusion: Result of level of knowledge and attitude regarding Covid-19 shows that urban people had good knowledge and attitude regarding COVID-19 than rural people.