Comparison of knowledge, attitude and practice on haze among first and final year medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang

Mohd Nasir, Nur Hazwani (2016) Comparison of knowledge, attitude and practice on haze among first and final year medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

Text lp FPSK4 2016 38.pdf Download (6MB)

Abstract

Introduction: Haze is defined as an atmospheric phenomenon where pollutant particles particulate in the air and obscure the normal clarity of the sky. Haze is one example of atmospheric pollution that has occurred in Malaysia several years back and getting worse until now. Most of the haze episodes occurred in conjunction with period of prolonged drought associated with the El Nino phenomenon. Haze gives great negative impacts in terms of health, social and the economy. Although awareness and concern about the problem of haze are constantly increasing, many previous studies showed that the students' practices on the environment including air pollution were still low among university students. Objective: To study the knowledge, attitude and practice on haze among first and final year of medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted at Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, UPM with first and final year of medical students as respondents. A total of 244 students were selected. Questionnaires were administered to determine the socio-demographic, information knowledge, attitude and practice on haze among them. Data was analysed by using "Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 22.0. The level of knowledge, attitude and practice on haze was evaluated using the scoring method. Result and Discussion: The level of knowledge for first and final year of medical students was moderate which was 40(41.9%) and 59(39.1%) respectively. The level of attitude for both groups were also moderate, which was 54(57.0%) and 97(64.2%) respectively. For the practice level, both groups showed bad practice during haze, which was 64(68.8%) and 107(70.9%) respectively. The findings also indicated that there were no significant difference of mean knowledge, attitude and practice on haze between these two groups (Z=0.555, p>0.05; t= -1.573, p>0.05; Z= -0.720, p>0.05). Malay and Chinese students were associated with knowledge level with odd ratio (OR) 5.22 and 2.98 respectively. In addition, there was an association between knowledge and practice (p=0.003, p<0.005). The attitude level was associated with practice level in which moderate attitude tend to have poor practice on haze (p=0.024, p<0.05). Conclusion: The medical students perceived moderate knowledge and attitude, but low in practice. They are recommended to take environmental course and the schedule should be restructured to determine the suitability of time and syllabus that should be taught to them. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Haze, Medical Students

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Depositing User:	Mr Muhamad Fazril Awang
Date Deposited:	23 Nov 2022 03:48
Last Modified:	23 Nov 2022 03:48
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/461

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