Assessment of knowledge attitude and practice regarding the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic outbreak among general population of karachi, pakistan

The novel corona virus has infected thousands of individuals around the globe as worldwide pandemic, the objective of the study was to assess the knowledge attitude and practices of general popula-tion of Karachi A cross sectional survey to assess the knowledge, attitude and perception of general popu-lation of Karachi was conducted for the period of 5 months, December 2019-April 2020 The questionnaire included demographic details and rest of was divided into 3 sections, Section A displayed knowledge, Sec-tion B displayed attitude, while Section C displayed practice regarding current pandemic of COVID-19 Out of total 425 participants, 310 were males, 115 were females, 12 7% were students, 78 4% were em-ployees while 8 9% were not working currently i e either housewives’ females, unemployed or retired 79 3% (n=337) had correct knowledge, 12 4% (n=54) did not know about the infection, 24 1% (n=102) agreed children are at higher risk to get infected, 67 2% (n=286) agreed that individuals above 60 years of age are at higher risk 89 1% (n=379) individuals suggested N95 mask, 3 2% (n=13) agreed local cloth mask was enough to prevent the infection, 7 5% (n=32) suggested wearing surgical mask is good practice 93 1% (n=396) respondents agreed COVID-19 has disturbed the life routine, 6 8% (n=29) remained un-affected, 76 9% (n=327) were emotionally/psychologically affected by the current pandemic 73 5% (n=312) agreed they have limited their social life and avoiding social gatherings 46 6% (n=198) agreed to stay isolated at home to avoid the infection 87 9% (n=373) agreed that they are worried by media and news related to worldwide pandemic The study concluded that the general population had knowledge re-garding the viral infection by news, media counseling, nearly majority of population addressed their prac-tices regarding preventive measures © 2020, Colegio de Farmaceuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires All rights reserved