Knowledge, attitude, perception of Muslim parents towards vaccination in Malaysia.

Malaysia is a predominant Muslim country and the recent surge in vaccine-preventable disease enticed us to conduct a survey to measure the Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of Muslim parents toward vaccination process. The data were collected under four segments such as demography, Knowledge, Attitude and Perception. The questionnaire had high internal consistency (0.823) for Cronbach's alpha. The sociodemographic determinants such as marital status (OR = 1.12; 0.91-1.38;p < .05), education level (college OR = 1.35; 1.12-1.64;p < .05, secondary OR = 1.22; 1.01-1.47;p < .05) and the occupation of parents (OR = 1.25; 1.07-1.45;p < .05) were observed affecting the Knowledge score significantly. Majority of Malaysian Muslim parents believed that "vaccine is not prohibited in Islam" and most of them also rejected the belief that "all vaccines are non halal and hence should be avoided". None of the sociodemographic determinants significantly affected the Attitude and Perception score of the Muslim parents. It was observed that the Attitude and Perception score did not establish any association with any of the socio-demographic determinants and hence the null hypothesis that Malaysian Muslim parents had positive Attitude and good Perception toward vaccination process was accepted.

Assessment of knowledge and attitude among postnatal mothers towards childhood vaccination in Malaysia.

Aim: Mothers knowledge and attitude toward childhood vaccination influence uptake is the most adequate tool and preventive aspects to infectious disease epidemics. The present study assesses and measures knowledge and attitude of postnatal mothers toward vaccination.Methods and results: The present study adopted a cross-sectional study design, whereby 200 postnatal mothers were identified during their postnatal visit to clinics. The subjects were accessed using questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge and attitude of mothers regarding vaccination. The objectives were to study the level of knowledge, the attitude, and to find the association between knowledge and attitude of the study subjects. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The results was analyzed through chi-square test. The association between age (p = .031), education (p = .021), occupation (p = .013), and knowledge score toward vaccination was found to be statistically significant. However, ethnicity (p = .127), employment (p = .197), and mode of delivery (p = .750) toward mothers vaccination knowledge were not significant for the study. Mothers education, age, and occupation were found to be associated with attitude toward childhood vaccination. No association was found between ethnicity, employment, and mode of delivery with attitude of childhood vaccination.Conclusion: More than half of the studied mothers had good knowledge scores on vaccination, more than two-thirds of the studied mothers had good attitude scores on vaccination. However, the religious misconception and fear of autism was the main cause of vaccine resistance in Malaysia.

Knowledge, understanding, attitude, perception and views on HPV infection and vaccination among health care students and professionals in Malaysia.

The human papilloma virus (HPV) is known to be a major causative agent of cervical cancers and warts, limited study has been conducted on its associated factors among health care students and professionals in Malaysia. The present study was carried to explore the knowledge, understanding, attitude, perception and views about HPV infection and vaccination. A total of 576 respondents were recruited to complete a self-administered questionnaire through convenience sampling across Malaysia. 80.% and of the females respondents exhibited a positive attitude towards knowledge and understanding and 60% exhibited a positive towards attitude, perception and views. Almost 65% of the population were in agreement that HPV can be transmitted sexually, and 56.7% felt strongly that sexually active persons should essentially be vaccinated. The corresponding values were somewhat lower among the male respondents. Regression analysis suggested that knowledge and understanding were strong associated with gender, age, and occupation. Attitude, perception and views were also evidently associated with gender and age. The Ministry of Health should take steps to improve awareness among the citizens. Efforts should be made to educate people on the risk of HPV as a sexually transmitted diseases associated with HPV, and on the availability of discounted and safe HPV vaccines in government hospitals to increase the uptake rate of HPV vaccines among the Malaysian population.