PP 95 A STUDY ON THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE AMONG FRONTLINE DOCTORS IN DENGUE MANAGEMENT IN UNIVERSITY MALAYA

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Dengue fever has become a main public concern in recent years. This study was conducted in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) with the objective to ascertain the current level of knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) regarding dengue management among the frontline doctors working in UMMC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study design was a descriptive cross sectional study. All doctors working in the Emergency department (ED) and primary care department (PCD) were recruited in the survey. All 117 doctors were interviewed by using a structured questionnaire.

RESULTS

The study showed that more than two third of the doctors had 5-10 years of working experience and they were seeing 20-40 patients in a day; while near to one third of them did not have dengue training in the past two years. This study showed that 70.9% of the doctors failed to identify the correct tourniquet test and only about one quarter of the doctors routinely advised patients on dengue preventive measures. There was significant association found between the working experience and practice behavior (p=0.007), working department and practice behavior (p=0.003) as well as knowledge and attitude among the ED doctors (p=0.004).

DISCUSSION

This study indicates that doctors in longer years of service gained more experience from seeing patients. PCD doctors had better practice score compared to ED doctors because more time were spent on advising patients on dengue self care and preventive measures. ED doctors had both good knowledge and positive attitudes towards dengue management. The knowledge of the frontline doctors can be improved further although majority of them posed high level of knowledge, while most of them had moderate attitude and fair practice score. Therefore, regular dengue training is necessary for improvement of knowledge, attitude and practice behavior on dengue management among the frontline doctors.