A Community Based Study on Tropical Phagedenic Ulcers in Shah Alam, Malaysia: Knowledge, Attitude and Practice

@#Introduction: Tropical phagedenic ulcer is a skin disease caused by a cocktail of bacteria. This painful ulcer forms over the lower limbs. It is also associated with necrotic slough and foul-smelling discharge that eventually lead to amputation and permanent disabilities. Tropical phagedenic ulcer in Malaysia has not been given much attention. In light of this situation, this research was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding tropical phagedenic ulcer among the public in Shah Alam, Selangor. Methods: The total respondents were 384, consisting of 164 males and 220 females who were randomly selected. Data were obtained qualitatively through structured questionnaires and analysed using the chi-square test to study the association between the dependent variables and demographic factors. Results: The collected data showed that the respondents (67.2%) had poor knowledge of tropical phagedenic ulcer; merely 65.4% considered it to be a health problem, whereas 29.7% believed it is contagious. Also, the data revealed an association between age (χ2=13.587, p =0.004), marital status (χ2=15.435, p=0.001), time spent in community (χ2=6.438, p=0.04) and knowledge of the local name of tropical phagedenic ulcer. About 74.7% of the respondents did not know the cause of tropical phagedenic ulcer. Only 22.1% of the respondents had encountered tropical phagedenic ulcer patients and an association was found between the variable with gender (χ2=4.672, p =0.031), age (χ2=24.134, p =0.000) and marital status (χ2=17.143, p =0.001). Conclusion: This study reveals misconceptions about the aetiology and transmission of tropical phagedenic ulcer which greatly influence the attitude of community members towards tropical phagedenic ulcer patients.

Knowledge, Attitude, And Practice Towards Dengue Fever Among Patients In Hospital Taiping

@#Dengue fever is the most common vector-borne disease and major concern issues in Malaysia. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate factors influencing knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding dengue fever among patients in Hospital Taiping. A total of 300 patients were incorporated into a descriptive, public based cross-sectional study. The questionnaires were formulated to include several questions on demographic data, knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning dengue fever. Most of the respondents were from the age group of more than 35 (43.3%). The largest representations of the participants were Malay (59.3%), married (65.7%), SPM is the highest education level (53.3%), and 60.7% of the participants were conscious about dengue fever eruption. Television/radio was voted as the frequent source of information (97.3%). There is no significant relationship between knowledge score and socio-demographic factors. However, around 57.0% of the respondents believe that abdominal pain is not a symptom of dengue fever and 32% convinced that blood transfusion can transmit dengue. No significant correlation was found between attitude and practice score to socio-demographic characters. However, a good practice towards dengue fever is associated with good knowledge (65.4 %) nevertheless it did not influence their attitude. Moreover, the attitude seems to be poor regardless of knowledge level (44.0%). Therefore, more prevention practices to raise the awareness of population toward dengue fever such as health campaigns and health education in school level should be initiated. These activities will aid in fertilizing better attitude and prevention practice towards dengue fever and bring down its incidence in Malaysia.