ISSN: 2456-8090 (online)

DOI: 10.26440/IHRJ/0509.12447

 

A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess Awareness and Practices Related to Prevention of COVID-19 Amongst Local Vendors around Medical and Dental Establishments

NEIL SHARMA1, AAKRITI BHATNAGAR*2, S. VASUDEV3, ANAMIKA KOHLI3

 

Cite this article as: Sharma N, Bhatnagar A, Vasudev S, Kohli A. A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess Awareness and Practices Related to Prevention of COVID-19 Amongst Local Vendors around Medical and Dental Establishments. Int Healthc Res J. 2021;5(9)OR1-OR4. https://doi.org/10.26440/IHRJ/0509.12447

 

Author Affiliations:

1. MBBS (India), Medical Student (Aspirant), Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
2. M.PT. and Consultant Physiotherapist, Koonur, Telangana, India
3. BDS, Private Practioners, Pondicherry, India

Contact Corresponding Author at: editor[dot]ihrj[at]gmail[dot]com

 

 ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION:  Even as the world is returning to normalcy after COVID-19, there is still a need to be cautious and adopt proper hygiene practices and social distance norms.

AIM: To assess the awareness and practices related to prevention of covid-19 amongst local vendors around medical and dental establishments in Northern India.

MATERIALS AND METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of  one month using a pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire. Vendors near ten medical and dental establishments in north India were contacted by standardized volunteers to prevent bias. They were located within the range of 250 meters on both sides of these facilities through convenience sampling.  Data was coded, entered in MS excel, descriptive statistics were applied. Statistical tests included the student’s independent t-test and multiple logistic regression. P value was kept significant at <0.5 and software used was SPSS version 23.0.

RESULTS: Most vendors were males (76.7%), were operating shops on rent (47.7%) and had passed middle school (40.2%). A Majority of them were aware of common symptoms (99.4%), while 90.1% were aware about the mode of transmission. All vendors knew about the availability of the vaccine (100%). and 78.2% of the vendors were fully vaccinated, while 04 (1.3%) were not vaccinated yet. However, only 60% (p=0.03) of the vendors practised hand washing, distancing from sick, no handshake, use a cloth while coughing/sneezing as preventive measures.

CONCLUSION: There is still a need for continuous education of the food vendors regarding proper and hygienic practices as well as mask wearing to fight off this dreaded pandemic and return to normalcy as soon as possible.

 

KEYWORDS: Vendors, Covid-19, Hygiene, Masks, Compliance

 

INTRODUCTION

The human race has been witness to numerous epidemics and pandemics which have affected millions of lives, either resulting in morbidity or mortality. Even as we humans boast of numerous advances in medicinal and allied research, the threat of new, undefined pathogens that pose an invisible threat to human lives. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus that had brought the human life on a standstill and several parts of the globe were staring at a global, economic and healthcare system(s) related crisis.1 

With the world returning to normalcy, thanks to the combined efforts of all healthcare workers, men and women in uniform and researchers who developed the vaccine to combat this deadly virus, there is still a need to maintain proper precautionary measures and social distancing norms. In addition, a correct knowledge of preventive measures and practicing respiratory hygiene is utmost important to break the chain of transmission. This can be achieved through frequent communication between health care providers and the public.2 

The nature of the work profile of these vendors puts the vendor at risk of either being affected with the disease, or serving as a potential carrier of this virus. They need to be in constant contact with people, and handle the exchange of currency  and it has been scientific studies have shown the potential of a virus and norovirus to be transmitted through banknotes and coins.3 In a study done in India, 42.3% of the vendors opined that it is difficult for an ordinary road side food vendor to provide cent percent quality, hygienic & nutritious food and a majority of the vendors were not using soap for washing hands.4 

Keeping the above facts in mind, it is important that in a post COVID-19 world, street vendors pay proper attention to proper and safe hygienic practices to prevent the further spread of this disease. Hence, the present study was undertakenwith the aim to assess the awareness and practices related to prevention of Covid-19 amongst local vendors around medical and dental establishments in Northern India. 

MATERIALS AND METHOD

The present study was designed to be cross-sectional in nature, conducted over a period of one month (July 2021-August, 2021) using a pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire adopted from Shastri et al. and obtaining a proper ethical clearance.5  Vendors near ten medical and dental establishments in north India were contacted and data was collected by the standardized interviewer in hindi. To avoid social desirability bias, no personal data of the respondent were collected.  Also, data was collected by standardized volunteers not associated with the study to prevent interviewer’s bias. Vendors located within the range of 250 meters on both sides of these facilities were included in the study using convenience sampling. 

Data collected was coded, entered in MS excel, descriptive statistics were applied. Statistical tests included the student’s independent t-test and multiple logistic regression. P value was kept significant at <0.5 and software used was SPSS version 23.0.6 

RESULTS

The demographic details of the vendors is depicted in table 1. Most vendors were males (76.7%), were operating shops on rent (47.7%) and had passed middle school (40.2%). The least of graduated were vendors were graduates (11.0%). 21.8 % of the vendors were employees and were working for someone else. 

Significant responses of the vendors to the questionnaire is depicted in table 2. It was observed that most vendors are aware of common symptoms (99.4%, p=0.01), while 90.1% (p=0.03) were aware about the mode of transmission. All vendors knew about the availability o the vaccine (100%, p=0.02). 78.2% of the vendors were fully vaccinated, while 04 (1.3%) were not vaccinated yet. However, only 60% (p=0.03) of the vendors practised hand washing, distancing from sick, no handshake, use a cloth while coughing/sneezing as preventive measures. 

While observing the responses of the vendors regarding their practices (table 3), most vendors reported having their source of information from internet and media (57.1%, p=0.03), and fortunately, while reporting hand washing practices, most vendors reported that they washed their hands very often(44%), and this was found to be significant (p=0.03). It was observed that 35.9% of the vendors wore their masks occasionally followed by 32.7% vendors were reported to wear their masks, although it was placed below their nose. These differences in mask wearing was also found to be statistically significant. 

Alternate link to tables/figures (Copy/paste link a new browser window): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kVW0cinj8P-_6tHajw4HT_rIclADXfcH/view?usp=sharing

DISCUSSION

The results of the present study, based on the aim of assessing the awareness and practices related to prevention of Covid-19 amongst local vendors around medical and dental establishments in Northern India revealed a need for better education of the vendors to better control and prevent the spread of the pandemic as they are often in contact with the general population; an at places like bus stands and railway stations, they often come in contact with those travelling from all corners of the country; and thus making them vulnerable without adopting proper hygienic practices. 

A majority of the vendors  were males (76.7%), and this is in agreement as per the study findings of Thakur CP et al.7,  who reported a prevalence of 97% male vendors. However, in contrast, among studies conducted by  Mohamed A et al.8 (72%) and Nkosi NV et al.9, (73.4%) females vendors formed a majority as vendors. These findings are dependent of various factors, a few of them being the local beliefs, geographic location and presence of basic facilities around these vendors. 

An encouraging fact was that 99.4% of the vendors were aware of the common symptoms of Covid-19. This is  agreement   to    studies     conducted    by    various authors.5,10,11 This could be due to the reason that the medium of knowledge dissemination has increased in general, ranging from newspapers to smartphones. In our study, most vendors (57.1%) got their knowledge regarding COVID-19 from Internet and social media, whose use was quite prevalent during the nation-wide lockdown. 

It was also overwhelming to know that all vendors knew about the availability of vaccine (100%). In addition, 78.2% vendors were fully vaccinated, while 20.5% of them took the first dose of the vaccine. However, efforts should be made to encourage the remaining 1.3% of vendors who have not started their vaccinations yet.

It was observed that 35.9% of the vendors wore their masks occasionally followed by 32.7% vendors were reported to wear their masks, although it was placed below their nose. Similar findings were reported by et al. who reported that 85% of males and 87% of females were only wearing masks; thus indication that even after educating the general public at various levels, total mask compliance by the population is yet to be achieved. 

CONCLUSION

Based on the results of the previous study there is still a need for continuous education of the food vendors regarding proper and hygienic practices as well as mask wearing to fight off this dreaded pandemic and return to normalcy as soon as possible. 

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© Neil Sharma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-NC 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the use is not commercial and the original author(s) and source are cited.

Submitted on: 04-Aug-2021;  Accepted on: 26-Dec-2021