The Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the health consciousness and hygiene levels in the people of Hyderabad, India

A questionnaire-based community study

Abstract

Hygiene and healthy lifestyle practices were known to be important for the attainment and maintenance of positive health. On one hand hygiene helps in the prevention of communicable diseases and on the other hand health consciousness in terms of lifestyle changes has proved to have a positive impact on the immunity of a person, both of which are of the essence during the COVID-19 crisis. The study aims to understand the increase in health consciousness and hygiene practices in the people of Hyderabad, India due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. It also studies variation within age groups. This could help us learn the deficit in efforts at the individual level and awareness at the community level. It was observed that the impact of COVID-19 outbreak has definitely caused an elevation in the health consciousness and hygiene levels of the people. The people became more health-conscious in terms of looking into the diet, exercising and making other lifestyle changes respectively.  The efforts to promote them, however, should be continued to reach everyone and the study has to be repeated to ensure this attitude continues. The study proves that there is no association between health consciousness and age groups but showed an association between hygiene and age groups. Thus more emphasis is required to promote hygienic practices among younger age groups to bridge the gap that was noticed.