Research Report.

SUMMARY:

Purpose: To access the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward COVID-19 among chronic diseases patients visiting tertiary hospitals of Kathmandu. Participants and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by face-to-face interview with 400 chronic disease patients who visited Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital and Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center, Kathmandu. Pre-structure questionnaires were asked related to socio-demographic information and KPA related to COVID-19.

Results: The male and female participant ratio was nearly 1:1 and 56.8% of participants were age ≥50 years. Overall, 55.5% of participants had good knowledge, 56.2% had good practices and 30.7% had good attitudes toward COVID-19. Aged between 18-34 years found higher odds of having good knowledge (aOR: 2.5; 95% CI: 1.3-6.0). Percipients with less than average family income (aOR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4-0.9) and those who were unable to read and write were associated with lower odds of having good attitude towards COVID 19 (aOR: 0.4; 95%CI: 0.2-0.9). Further the correlation between KAP toward COVID-19 was found statistically significant (p <0.001).

Conclusion: Nearly half of the participants had poor knowledge and practice. More than two-third of the participants had bad attitude regarding the COVID-19. Increasing age was significantly associated with poor knowledge and poor practice.

Key words: Chronic diseases, COVID-19, KAP, Nepal