COVID-19 and Pakistan: a survey assessing the awareness of patients presenting to the outpatient departments of health care centers.

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

Hammad Yaqub¹  Ahsan Tameez-Ud-Din²  Farooq Mohyud Din Chaudhary³  Ateeb Parvez⁴  Daneyal Arshad⁵  Asim Tameez Ud Din⁶ 

[1] Basic Health Unit;Benazir Bhutto Hospital;Buch International Hospital;Naqaish Medicare;Rawalpindi Medical University;Shifa International Hospital;

关键词: coronavirus;    outpatient department;    prevention;    facemask;    lockdown;   

DOI  :  10.1080/20009666.2020.1860278

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: The coronavirus pandemic is one of the most disastrous calamities of modern times. The outpatient departments of health centers have an important role in the appropriate health education of the patients and their attendants regarding disease prevention and control. Objective: The objective of this study was to help the health authorities in devising an effective strategy of educating the vulnerable population at their point of first contact with a health professional. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from 2 April 2020, to 17 July 2020, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Data was entered and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Out of 238, 144 were males and 94 were females and the mean age was 34.53 years. Although television was the most common source of information (51.7%) a significant proportion of the people of Shorkot, i.e., 60.3% relied on word of mouth compared to that of other cities (p < 0.001). Almost 60% of the participants recognized all the symptoms correctly. The majority agreed that wearing a mask was effective in limiting transmission (96.6%) and about 80% of the participants considered the decision of the nation-wide lockdown to be a correct measure. In Shorkot, 32% of the people were against the decision of lockdown, which was significantly higher as compared to people from other cities (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated encouraging data regarding awareness of the included population in terms of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive measures.

【 授权许可】

Unknown