A study of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding Dengue among Orang Asli in district of Gombak / Nur Faizah Abd. Hamid

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was done in the settlements and administration area of Orang Asli in district of Gombak, Selangor to assess level of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) regarding dengue and it relationship among these three parameters as well with socio-demographic backgrounds. Survey was conducted from month of June 2011 until January 2012. About 160 questionnaires comprised of four parts- Socio-demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice were distributed in two Orang Asli settlements. However, only 158 respondents comprises of Orang Asli that stay in the settlements as well as administration area of JAKOA were willing to fully cooperate and fill-in questionnaire completely. IBM SPSS 19.0 and Microsoft Excel 2010 were used in statistical analysis. Descriptive statistical, Anova and independent student t-test were widely used to establish any association between independent and socio-demographic data together with Pearson-product of correlation to assess correlation between independent variable. Results of this study show that knowledge of population of Orang Asli is moderately good. Mass media is the major sources of their knowledge. Positive attitude of Orang Asli with regards of dengue ensure that they are taking good preventive action towards dengue and its vector, Aedes aegypti. Good knowledge and positive attitude contribute to positive practice towards dengue prevention among this minority population. It is strongly recommended that if any parties that would like to improve level of knowledge, attitude and practice concerning dengue among population of Orang Asli to use suitable medium to approach them.