Selected Article of Journal (IPTK)

Introduction: Malaysia reported a 150.7% increment in dengue cases in 2022 compared to 2021. Aim of this study was to evaluate the respondent's involvement in dengue prevention initiatives and public perceptions of barriers to eliminating mosquito breeding sites among Malaysian residents. Methods: A cross-sectional survey employing a population-based approach and a sophisticated survey design, carried out from August to October 2020. Respondents in this study must be 13 years of age or older from the selected households and live in non-institutionalized living quarters (LQ) units in Malaysia, regardless of citizenship. A pretested and structured Self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was used. SPSS Version 23.0 was used to analyse the data. Results: Out of 4,522 participants, only 1,642 (36.7%) people carried out individual "Search and Destroy" mosquito breeding site practices at home once a week as recommended by the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH). Most respondents (n = 3,831, 94.3%) said they cleared their homes' clogged drains and cleaned their rain gutters. There is a significant association between compliance of ‘Search and Destroy’ practicing and type of house (p value = 0.001). In order to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes, 89.9% of the respondents (n=4,047) stated that they stay indoors when Aedes mosquito are active. The perceived barriers to dengue prevention activities are high for 22.6% of the participants. Conclusions: Addressing public perception of barriers to dengue prevention is an important step in controlling the spread of this disease in Malaysia.

Introduction: Dengue fever is one of the world’s most severe mosquito-borne diseases, with high morbidity and mor tality rate. Poor dengue prevention practices are one of the factors contributing to dengue outbreak. National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) have collected lots of population data on the prevalence of various non-communicable and communicable diseases, including dengue. NHMS 2020 however, focus on communicable diseases i.e., Dengue, Malaria, HIV & Covid-19. Notwithstanding, data on Cognitive, Affective and Behaviour (CAB) domains are scarce. Thus, this study was aimed to develop and validate CAB questionnaire on dengue in Malaysia. Material and Methods: The questionnaire was developed by adapting and improvising similar previous questionnaires used during NHMS 2015, selected published questionnaires, expert panel and literature review. A sample of 200 respondents was used to evaluate the internal consistency of the final instrument. Results: 5 experts reviewed the content validity of the CAB questionnaire while 20 respondents tested its face validity. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients scores were within the acceptable range from 0.661 to 0.677. Various adjustments were made by deleting items with low Cronbach alpha values in attempt to attain the highest possible alpha values, but further deduction could not be made due to the retention of several important domain-measurement items. Conclusions: The validity and reliability of the CAB-IHBR-Dengue-A-01 questionnaire were of ‘acceptable’ ranges and can be used to assess CAB. The questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the CAB’s ability to influence dengue prevention among Malaysians.

Dengue is one of the public health concerns in developing and developed countries. Since the main control measure for dengue is health prevention and control activities, especially among children, it is essential to assess children’s knowledge on dengue prevention activities in preventing the disease. This study aimed to develop an assessment tool (CAB-IHBR-Dengue-C-01) attempting to measure children’s knowledge of dengue prevention activities in Malaysia. Twelve (12) pictorials with descriptions were developed to capture children’s understanding of the correct method of dengue prevention activities. Cronbach’ alpha test was used to assess the internal consistency of the items, and the test and retest reliability method was used to measure the consistency of the questionnaire. For test-retest reliability analysis, tests were conducted twice, with an interval of two (2) weeks from the first test. In total, 58 respondents comprising of Malay, Chinese, and Indian aged between 7 and 12 years old were included in this study. *e results showed the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) score was 0.640; with moderate reliability; meanwhile, Cronbach’s alpha score was 0.606. In conclusion, CAB-IHBR-Dengue-C-01 (Cognitive Affective Behaviour-Institute for Health Behavioural Research-Dengue-Children-Version 01) is reliable to be used.