Understanding, patterns of use and attitudes towards traditional Malay medicine (TMM) among UiTM Puncak Alam students / Nur Ummi Alia Ismail

Purpose: Traditional Malay Medicine (TMM) is popular among the Malay population despite of its limited scientific evidence based on the safety and also effectiveness of this treatment. As we all know that UiTM is the only university that has bumiputera and Malay students. This study is conducted to investigate the understanding, attitudes and patterns of uses of TMM among UiTM Puncak Alam students. Method: A cross sectional study has been conducted to 400 undergraduate students of UiTM Puncak Alam. The respondents have been divided into 4 different groups based on the 4 main courses in UiTM Puncak Alam. Data were collected using a specific questionnaire for each student that content of several part about knowledge, attitude and uses of TMM. Results: A total of 357 (89.25%) questionnaires were collected. There were a positive knowledge and attitude among each student from different courses regarding the use of TMM. Apart from that, they have some doubt about the scientific evidence-based of the safety and effectiveness of the TMM. Main factor for using TMM is because of health maintenance (p=0.009) and it is differences between the previous study that stated that low cost and easier to get are one of the main reasons. Apart from that, there are significantly differences between each group regarding the patterns of use of as p-value is less than 0.05 except for the frequency of using TMM. Conclusion: Most of the students from each course have a positive knowledge and attitude towards the TMM. This study also presented a high percentage of TMM use among the students in each different course.