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Malaysian students’ knowledge of HBV, HCV considered ‘low’
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International students attending a leading research university in Malaysia were not fully knowledgeable about hepatitis B and C viruses, according to recent findings published in BMC Public Health. Despite this, most of them displayed safe practices.
“It can be concluded that the levels of knowledge of hepatitis B and C among the respondents as well as attitudes toward the disease were marginally low, although the practices toward the disease were reasonably good,” Hejar Abdul Rahman, MD, in the department of community health at Universiti Putra Malaysia, and colleagues wrote. “The study level, faculty, age, nationality, marital status and gender of the respondents were significantly associated with their levels of knowledge, attitude and practices toward hepatitis B and C.”
Among different groups, hepatitis B and C knowledge is low, the researchers wrote.
To demonstrate their findings, Rahman and colleagues collected questionnaire results from 662 international students at the university. They found that 50.3% of respondents had good knowledge of hepatitis B, 52.7% had good knowledge of hepatitis C, 54.8% had a positive attitude toward both hepatitis B and C, and 77.6% had safe practices toward both hepatitis B and C. The investigators determined there were positive correlations between knowledge of hepatitis B and knowledge of hepatitis C, between knowledge and attitude of hepatitis C, between knowledge and practice of hepatitis B, between knowledge and practice of hepatitis C, and a positive association between attitude and practice of both hepatitis B and C.
The researchers wrote that their findings indicate a greater need for hepatitis health promotion among international students at their university and perhaps with students worldwide.
“The significance of the study includes that: it would add to the body of literature as there are very scanty scholarly write-ups on hepatitis-related knowledge, attitude and practice in Malaysia and among international students globally,” the researchers wrote. “This paucity has exposed the gap in hepatitis-related knowledge and attitude among international students.” – by Will Offit
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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