Health risk perceptions among hostel residents of an educational institution of higher learning / Enna Suriana Anak Ekit

A study on health risk perceptions among hostel residents of UiTM Puncak Alam was conducted to assess hostel residents’ perceptions on environmental, health and safety, to identify the symptoms hostel residents experienced, to associate perception with hostel settings and to identify the association of health symptoms with the hostel settings. A survey questionnaire which specified in the environmental, health and safety components perception and the health symptoms experienced was used in this study. The target population of this study were students residing in UiTM Puncak Alam with a total of 227 respondents (n=227). The results revealed that the residents were satisfied with their surrounding environment while the highest unsatisfactory perception was on food safety issues. Hostel residents have also experienced health symptoms such as eye 15%, nose 30.4%, throat 30%, head 31.7%, skin 27.3%, abdominal discomforts 34.4% and fatigue 30.8% while staying in the hostel building with highly rated on abdominal discomfort. No association found between the environmental health and safety components perception with gender. Results of environmental health and safety components perception affected by the hostel buildings specifically on noise quality for both external (p=0.0024) and internal noise (p=0.008), adequacy of water supply (p=0.005) and room space (p=0.001). There is association between the perception and duration of residency for IAQ (p=0.016), ventilation (p=0.013), water supply (p=0.038), room space (p=0.037), electrical safety (p=0.024) and safety facilities (p=0.003). As for perception and floor levels, there is association for IAQ (p=0.045), water (p=0.035) and food hygiene (p=0.014). There is an association between health symptoms for fatigue with the hostel buildings (p=0.018) and length of stay (p=0.012), throat (p=0.023) and skin discomfort (p=0.001) based on hostel blocks. None was found between health symptoms with floor levels. Overall findings of the study suggest that generally the residents had a positive and satisfactory response towards hostel of UiTM Puncak Alam campus.