ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE ON USAGE OF HAND SANITIZERS AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS, HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS AND GENERAL PUBLIC DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

Introduction: Absence of proper treatment for COVID-19 necessitates prevention of this disease.This is achieved by proper hand sanitation. Sanitation includes washing of hands with soap and use of hand sanitizers. The latter is consideredadvantageous due to its easy usage and comfortability. Being on high demand for healthcare professionalsduring pandemic, their knowledge, attitude and practice towards it have to be analysed for increasing the awareness and preventing the transmission of COVID-19 from health care setup. Objectives:To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice on use of hand sanitizers by medical students, health care professionals and general public in India during COVID- 19 pandemic. Methodology: It is a cross sectional questionnaire-based survey. Aquestionnaire consisting of twenty questions, four questions on the demographic details, six on knowledge assessment, six on hand hygiene practice and four on attitudinal assessmentwas developed and validated. The questionnaire was made available as Google form and participants who gave informed consentparticipated in the study. The responses received were analysed and results summarized. Results: Among the 325 participants, 203 were undergraduate medical students, 29 healthcare professional and 93 general public. The gender distribution was almost equal and mean age of the participants was 22 years.156 participants have agreed that sanitizers contribute to hand hygiene and prevention of COVID-19 infection. 276 participants had the habit of using hand sanitizers. Dryness of skin was the common adverse effect experienced. Forgetfulness was the frequent reason limiting usage of HS. Conclusion: It was observed that the habit of using HS was more prevalent among medical students and health care professionals and they had better knowledge than the general public regarding the use of HS. Awareness programs among the general population will improve their knowledge on HS usage.