A rapid online survey of knowledge about COVID-19 among medical students of Nagpur

Background: Since its beginning the year 2020 has been marked by a new global pandemic which has emerged and spread rapidly, caused by a new strain of Coronaviruses called SARS-CoV-2.It is essential in the current circumstances that medical undergraduates have adequate knowledge about COVID-19.Present study was planned to study the knowledge of medical undergraduate students about COVID-19.Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted at Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur located in state of Maharashtra in the central part of India.The study was carried out during March 2020.It included a survey in total 210 students from all four years of M.B.B.S.It was a rapid assessment descriptive cross sectional study.Data collection was done by a pretested, predesigned self administered questionnaire containing total questions about knowledge, causation, spread and prevention of COVID-19.Descriptive statistics like percentage, mean, and SD (standard deviation) were computed for data presentation.Observations and Results: Number of male respondents was 103 and female students were 107 in number.Students from all four years of MBBS participated in the study.Good knowledge was reflected by 111 (52.86%), fair knowledge was present in 83 (39.52%) whereas poor knowledge was observed in only 16(7.62%) of the study participants.There was a statistically significant difference in scores of male and female respondents (p <0.05).Conclusions: The study concludes that majority of the medical students had knowledge about COVID-19.