Assessment of Precautionary Measures Medical Students & Doctors Practiced at Eid-ul-Adha during COVID-19

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the precautionary measures that medical students and clinicians practiced during Eid-ul-Adha' 2020." METHODOLOGY: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted on medical students and doctors/clinicians/faculty in Balochistan, where the questionnaire (10 items) was posted on google platforms after Eid-ul-Adha between 10th to 31st December 2020. Inclusion criteria consisted of first to third year medical students and clinicians whereas fourth and final year, house officers and postgraduate students were excluded. Pilot study demonstrated reliability of questionnaire Cronbach's alpha 0.624. SPSS version 23 was used for analysis. RESULTS: In current study majority (n=82/126) of the study participants were males, more than half of them were medical students (n=73/126). Eighty percent (80%) participants (n=66/82) offered Eid's congregational prayer in masjids, 11/82 prayed at home only five (n=5/82) of them didn't perform prayer at all; majority (64%) of them practiced SOPs at the time of prayer in Masjid. In family gatherings, 73% followed all precautionary measures whereas 10% avoided SOP's. At the time of ritual livestock sacrifice, 62% participants followed whereas only 10% didn't follow to any precautions. During meat distribution, 68.5% study participants practiced all precautionary measures and just 2.7% did not follow SOP's during meat distribution. No significant difference was found between medical students and doctors in practicing precautionary measures, except during meat distribution (p-0.009). CONCLUSION: Medical students and doctors practiced precautionary measures well. However, statistically significant relation was found between medical students and doctors praying in masjids and maintaining a safe distance in Eid gatherings during this pandemic. KEYWORDS: COVID-19, Eid-ul-Adha, Precautionary Measures, Medical Students, Doctors.