ASSESSMENT OF AWARENESS, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICE OF USE OF FACEMASK AMONG THE GENERAL POPULATION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A QUESTIONNAIRE STUDY.

Introduction: Masks play a role in the protection of health from acquiring respiratory infections including COVID-19. But there is a paucity of evidence on the effectiveness of facemask use during COVID-19. The purpose of the study was to assess the awareness, attitude and practices of the use of facemask among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire study was conducted among the general population to assess awareness, attitude and practices of use of facemask. The structured, self-administered, close-ended questionnaire was designed to collect the data which consist of two parts and comprised 25 questions related to knowledge, attitude and practices of use of facemask. The reliability and validity of the instrument (Cronbach alpha- 0.681). Informed consent was also taken from all the participants. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics. Results: In this study, there were a total of 350 participants between 18-78 years of age. Only 20% of the participants know that the outside surface of the mask is not to be touched and 28.3% preferred wearing an N95 mask over others. More than half of participants 52% strongly agreed to wear a face mask, while 39.1% of the people often perform hand hygiene before wearing a face mask but not always. Conclusion: The study concluded that the overall knowledge of study participants was average while attitude and practices of use of facemask were good in study participants. Keywords: Attitude, Awareness, COVID-19, Facemask, SARS-CoV-2, Pandemic.