Knowledge, belief's attitudes and practices of dengue fever among the orang asli in Peninsular Malaysia / Josephine Rebecca

Dengue is prevalent among Malaysia's indigenous people, known as the Orang Asli, and&#13;\nit poses a serious health threat to them. The study aims to look at the socio-demographic&#13;\nfactors, health beliefs, and knowledge about dengue and its association to dengue&#13;\nprevention practices among Orang Asli communities in Peninsula Malaysia. A crosssectional&#13;\nsurvey was conducted in 16 randomly selected Orang Asli villages from eight&#13;\nstates in Peninsula Malaysia from April 2012 until February 2013. A total of 560 Orang&#13;\nAsli were interviewed and 505 completed the survey. Overall dengue knowledge score&#13;\namong the respondent were low; tribes, occupational status and average monthly&#13;\nhousehold income significantly correlated to dengue knowledge. The Semoq Beri tribe&#13;\n(OR=11.137, 95% CI= 2.98-41.61), was more likely to have higher dengue knowledge&#13;\ncompared to the reference group (Kensui tribe). Skilled workers (OR=3.66, 95 %&#13;\nCI=1.07-12.52) were more likely to have higher dengue knowledge compared to the&#13;\nreference group (unemployed). However, those with income less than RM500&#13;\n(OR=0.60, 95%CI = 0.39-0.94) were less likely to have dengue knowledge compared to&#13;\nthe reference group (RM500 - RM1200). With regards to the constructs of HBM,&#13;\nmajority of the Orang Asli respondents had perceived dengue severity score of 6-10&#13;\n(n=445, 88.1%) and only 11.9 % had perceived dengue severity score of 1-5 (n=60).&#13;\n82.0% of respondents had a score of 1-5 for perceived susceptibility towards dengue&#13;\n(n=414) while only 18.0 % of the Orang Asli respondents had score of 6-10 for&#13;\nperceived susceptibility towards dengue (n=91). Majority of the Orang Asli respondents&#13;\nhad score of 1-5 for perceived barriers to prevent dengue (n=435, 86.1%) and only&#13;\n18.0% (n=70) of the respondents had score 6-10 for perceived barriers to prevent&#13;\ndengue. Majority of the Orang Asli respondents “Disagree and strongly disagree” that&#13;\nthere is a lack of self –efficacy in taking preventive measures against dengue (n=376,&#13;\n74.5%). Overall dengue prevention practices were slightly high; perceived barriers to&#13;\niv&#13;\nprevent dengue, knowledge score and tribes were factors which were significant&#13;\ncorrelate to dengue prevention practices. Respondent with low perceived barrier&#13;\n(OR=1.867, 95% CI= 1.051-3.317) were more likely to carry out dengue prevention&#13;\npractices. Respondents with low knowledge score (OR=0.522, 95% CI= 0.343-0.794)&#13;\nwere less likely to carry out dengue prevention practices. Respondents from the Jakun&#13;\ntribe (OR=0.167, 95% CI= 0.054-0.514) and Temuan tribe (OR=0.407, 95% CI= 0.181-&#13;\n0.916) were less likely to carry out dengue prevention practices compared to the&#13;\nreference group (Kensui tribe). Findings imply that efforts to enhance dengue&#13;\nprevention practices should focus on eliminating the foremost important factors which&#13;\nare the perceived barriers to prevent dengue and lack of knowledge of dengue.&#13;\nIntervention should focus on educating the Orang Asli to remove barriers to prevent&#13;\ndengue and impart more knowledge of dengue.

Topic: Mosquito-borne diseases and control
Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences