Health literacy is an indicator of a society’s ability to make better health judgements for themselves and the people around them. This study investigated the prevalence of health literacy among Malaysian adults and provided an overall picture of the society’s current health literacy status, which has not been previously assessed. The study also highlighted socio-demographic markers of communities with limited health literacy that may warrant future intervention. A population-based self-administered survey using the Health Literacy Survey Malaysian Questionnaire18 (HLS-M-Q18) instrument was conducted as part of the National Health Morbidity Survey 2019 in Malaysia. The nationwide survey utilized a two-staged stratified random sampling method. A sample of 9478 individuals aged 18 and above, drawn from the living quarter list, participated in the study. The health literacy score was divided into three levels; limited, sufficient, and excellent. Findings showed a majority of the Malaysian population had a sufficient health literacy level in all three domains—healthcare, diseases prevention and health promotion (49.1%, 44.2%, and 47.5%, respectively)—albeit leaning towards the lower end of the category with an average score of 35.5. The limited health literacy groups were prevalent among respondents with older age (68%), lower education level (64.8%), and lower household income (49.5%). The overall health literacy status for Malaysia was categorized at a lower sufficiency level. Future health literacy improvements should focus on communities with a limited health literacy level to improve the overall score.

Dengue is one of the public health concerns in developing and developed countries. Since the main control measure for dengue is health prevention and control activities, especially among children, it is essential to assess childrens knowledge on dengue prevention activities in preventing the disease. This study aimed to develop an assessment tool (CAB-IHBR-Dengue-C-01) attempting to measure childrens knowledge of dengue prevention activities in Malaysia. Twelve (12) pictorials with descriptions were developed to capture childrens understanding of the correct method of dengue prevention activities. Cronbach alpha test was used to assess the internal consistency of the items, and the test and retest reliability method was used to measure the consistency of the questionnaire. For test-retest reliability analysis, tests were conducted twice, with an interval of two (2) weeks from the first test. In total, 58 respondents comprising of Malay, Chinese, and Indian aged between 7 and 12 years old were included in this study. The results showed the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) score was 0.640; with moderate reliability; meanwhile, Cronbachs alpha score was 0.606. In conclusion, CAB-IHBR-Dengue-C-01 (Cognitive Affective Behaviour-Institute for Health Behavioural Research-Dengue-Children-Version 01) is reliable to be used.

Introduction: Malaysia reported a 150.7% increment in dengue cases in 2022 compared to 2021. Aim of this study was to evaluate the respondent's involvement in dengue prevention initiatives and public perceptions of barriers to eliminating mosquito breeding sites among Malaysian residents. Methods: A cross-sectional survey employing a population-based approach and a sophisticated survey design, carried out from August to October 2020. Respondents in this study must be 13 years of age or older from the selected households and live in non-institutionalized living quarters (LQ) units in Malaysia, regardless of citizenship. A pretested and structured Self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was used. SPSS Version 23.0 was used to analyse the data. Results: Out of 4,522 participants, only 1,642 (36.7%) people carried out individual "Search and Destroy" mosquito breeding site practices at home once a week as recommended by the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH). Most respondents (n = 3,831, 94.3%) said they cleared their homes' clogged drains and cleaned their rain gutters. There is a significant association between compliance of ‘Search and Destroy’ practicing and type of house (p-value = 0.001). In order to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes, 89.9% of the respondents (n=4,047) stated that they stay indoors when Aedes mosquito are active. The perceived barriers to dengue prevention activities are high for 22.6% of the participants. Conclusions: Addressing public perception of barriers to dengue prevention is an important step in controlling the spread of this disease in Malaysia.

Chronic cough (CC), defined as a cough persisting for over eight weeks, presents diagnostic and management challenges in primary care, particularly in tube

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui tahap kemurungan dan juga perbezaan antara tahap kemurungan mengikut ciri-ciri demografi jururawat di Kuala Lumpur. Kajian rentas ini telah dijalankan ke atas 145 orang jururawat bermula daripada bulan Julai 2015 sehingga Januari 2016. Soalan Beck Depression Inventory 11 (BDI 11) telah digunakan bertujuan untuk mengukur simptom dan tahap kemurungan yang dialami oleh responden. Data kemudiannya dianalisis dengan menggunakan perisian SPSS versi 21. Bagi menguji tahap perbezaan antara komponen kemurungan dengan maklumat demografi, Ujian T Tidak Bersandar dan Ujian Anova Sehala telah dijalankan. Dapatan menunjukkan 88 orang jururawat berada pada tahap kemurungan minimum, 26 orang pada tahap biasa, 27 orang pula pada tahap sederhana dan 4 orang mengalami kemurungan yang teruk. Bagi menguji perbezaan tahap kemurungan untuk maklumat demografi, didapati hanya faktor umur sahaja yang mempunyai perbezaan signifikan (p < .05) namun bagi maklumat demografi lain seperti jantina, tahap perkahwinan, pendapatan, tempoh bertugas semasa dan juga tempoh perkhidmatan menunjukkan tiada perbezaan signifikan (p > .05). Dapatan kajian ini boleh membantu dalam menyediakan modul dan program intervensi bagi memastikan jururawat yang sentiasa terdedah dan berisiko terhadap masalah mental ini mempunyai pengetahuan dan kemahiran yang tinggi dalam mengawal tekanan emosi semasa menjalankan tugas.