Assessment of impact of structured education regarding COVID – 19 among higher secondary school children among selected schools of Kalaburagi City

Abstract

Background: The Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is considered as an emerging respiratory disease that is highly infectious, and was detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. According to WHO, Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases. Understanding people’s perceptions of disease will provide tools to improve strategies to limit its transmission. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) associated with the disease among higher secondary school students. Objectives: The primary objective was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding COVID-19. The secondary objective was to improve and compare the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding COVID-19 among the school children. Materials and Methods: A community based prospective educational study was conducted among higher secondary school children of randomly selected schools in Kalaburagi city. All the selected students in the study were provided with a data collection form and assent form including self-structured questionnaires. After pre-test all the students were educated regarding COVID-19 by means of PowerPoint presentations, videos and information- leaflets on COVID-19. Post-test has been conducted after a gap of 14 days of education by means of same questionnaires. Data were collected and entered into excel and results were analyzed. Pre-test and post-test intervention data were compared using student t- test. Result: A statistically significant difference between secondary school students’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices before and after educational intervention. In the post-test, all 220 students had a good knowledge (95.7%), attitude (94.2%), and practice (92.5%) level with a very highly statistical significance which improved after structured education. Conclusion: The findings have revealed that secondary school students' knowledge, attitude, and practice have been improved after the structured education by clinical pharmacist.