Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

Introduction: The persistently increasing number of dengue cases costs a significant amount of health financial ex-penditure by the government. Communities throughout the country should be equipped with adequate knowledge and have a good practice in the avenue of reducing dengue infection incidence. This study aims to describe the knowledge and practice levels on dengue fever and their associated factors among adults in a rural village in Negeri Sembilan. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a village of Tampin District using a pretested struc-tured questionnaire. Face-to-face interview was conducted among participants whose houses were randomly select-ed. The questionnaire consisted of sections identifying the socio-demographic factors and assessing their knowledge and practice on dengue fever. Knowledge that was assessed includes the sign and symptoms of dengue fever, knowl-edge on the vector, preventive measures and legislation related to it while practice includes their routine action in preventing dengue fever. Results: A total of 221 respondents responded to the questionnaire. The prevalence of re-spondents ever had dengue fever was 10.4% (n=23). Out of 100, the mean (s.d.) knowledge and practice score was 77.2(13.1) and 75.8(16.7) respectively. Good knowledge and practice on dengue fever was found among 52.0% and 47.5% of the respondents respectively. Good knowledge was associated with being middle aged (p=0.001), married (p=0.010) and having higher household income (p= 0.037). There was a significant but weak positive correlation between knowledge and practice of dengue fever (r=0.237, p