Knowledge, attitude and practice about dengue among community living in high occurrence of dengue cases in Setiawangsa locality

Dengue fever is a very infectious disease and has become a major public health problem in Malaysia. Despite taking many preventive and control measures, there has been a significant increase in the number of cases in Kuala Lumpur in 2019 (i.e., 103.45% increase) than those noted in 2018. Between 2015 and 2018, the Setiawangsa Parliament reported the highest number of dengue fever cases and was regarded as the major epidemic region in Titiwangsa. Dengue fever is related to human activities which are based on human behaviour. Good knowledge, positive attitude and correct practice regarding dengue control are essential to curb the spread of the disease. Hence, this study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding the dengue fever amongst the residents living in the regions with the highest number of dengue cases in the Setiawangsa district (i.e Desa Rejang Public Housing), as well as to evaluate association between the KAP in the study location. A community-based study was conducted in a closed, dengue endemic area with multi-storey dwellings. 338 individuals (aged 18 years and above) representing their household members were approached for KAP. The study showed majority of the total participants have good knowledge (91.1%) and 8.9% had adequate knowledge about dengue. Most of the respondents (98.8%) had an excellent attitude toward dengue prevention. Only 9% of the respondent had an excellent practice against dengue, 49.8% with good practice, 29.2% with adequate practice and 12% with poor practice. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to assess the relationship between knowledge and attitude, attitude and practice, as well as knowledge and practice. There was no correlation between knowledge and attitude, the same goes for knowledge and practice. Changes in knowledge are not correlated with changes in attitude and practice. There was a positive and statistically significant correlation between attitude and practice, r = 0.157, n = 338, p = 0.004. Increases in attitude level were correlated with increases in the practice level. All sociodemographic variables are the predicator for the respective KAP levels (P < 0.05). In conclusion, proactive and sustainable efforts are needed to bring a behavioural change among communities in order to fight dengue outbreaks in endemic areas.