: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the elderly were the worst affected due to their co-morbidities and social and financial dependency. Limited access to resources contributed to the problem.: To assess the perceptions and practices regarding COVID-19 in the elderly attending the outpatient department of a government hospital and to assess the socio-cultural problems faced by the geriatric population due to the change in social situation as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.: A cross-sectional study was carried out using an interviewer administered schedule to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of COVID-19 among 124 elderly who visited the hospital in the study period for various reasons. : The mean age of the subjects was 67.65 years +/- 7.04. Hypertension and diabetes were present among 40.8% and 32.0% respectively. Awareness of common symptoms of COVID-19 was present among 80.6%, awareness of mode of spread among 79.8% and preventive measures among 97.5%. Knowledge of mask as a preventive measure was present among 49.2% of the subjects, reusing the masks was done by 94.3% and covering both nose and mouth was performed by only 57.2%. 78.2% firmly believed that treatment for the disease does not exist. 71.0% felt that social distancing is difficult to accomplish. Vaccine hesitancy was also an important factor unearthed by our study.: Our study found that most of the elderly attending the outpatient clinic were aware of government recommended guidelines concerning COVID -19 safety precautions, but were not following them as per recommendations. We recommend a three-pronged model addressing the issues of citizens, raising awareness on guidelines of COVID-19 prevention and prevention of overcrowding.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.