A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND

PRACTICE OF HEPATITIS B VACCINATION AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS

IN MALAYSIA

Overview

The aim of this research is to study the knowledge, attitude and practice of Hepatitis B
vaccination among medical students in Malaysia. The study involves 171 students of
academic years 3 and 4, from Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Muar, Johor. The
study took place for 6 weeks, between April to June 2019. The respondents are chosen
for this research. The study is questionnaire based. The respondents are given a set of
questions tha consist of four sections - demographic details, attitude and practice of
Hepatitis B vaccination. According to the researchers of this paper, there are
researches done regarding the topic of Hepatitis B vaccination with health based
students, international students, and household. However, the researchers could not
find any study that links the knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination to the attitude and
practice of Hepatitis B vaccination.

The research questions are:

1. What is the prevalence of Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students?

2. Is there any association of gender, ethnicity, and socioecnimic status with

knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students?

3. Is there any association of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status with

attitude of Hepatitis B vaccination mong medical students?

4. Is there any association of knowledge and attitude with practice of Hepatitis B

vaccination among medical students?

The research questions are linked with the research objectives:

1. To find out the prevalence of Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students.

2. To find out the association of gender, ethnicity, and socioecnimic status with
knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students.

3. To find out the association of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status with
attitude of Hepatitis B vaccination mong medical students

4. To find out the association of knowledge and attitude with practice of Hepatitis B
vaccination among medical students.

The research hypothesis are as follows:

1. There is an association between gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status with

knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students.

2. There is an association between gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status with

attitude of Hepatitis B vaccination among medical students.

3. There is an association between knowledge, attitude with practice of Hepatitis B

vaccination among medical students.

The variables and tests are listed in the table below.

Independent Variable Dependent variable Test

Gender Unpaired t test

Ethnicity Knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination ANOVA

Socioeconomic Status

Gender Unpaired t test

Ethnicity Attitude of Hepatitis B vaccination ANOVA

Socioeconomic Status

Knowledge Practice of Hepatitis B vaccination Binary Logistic

Regression
Attitude
The results obtained showed that a huge majority of students have been vaccinated
against Hepatitis B. among the majority, nearly 75% of the students vaccinated
against Hepatitis B had full three doses of vaccine. A majority of the students also
have moderate to good attitude and knowledge towards Hepatitis B vaccination. The
study showed that there is no link between gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status
with the knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination. There is a significant association of
females in terms of attitude towards Hepatitis B vaccination compared to men. In
terms of ethnicity, Chinese show the greatest association compared to other races. In
terms of socioeconomic status, students from lower class status show the least
affiliation in terms of attitude towards Hepatitis B vaccination. Students with good
attitude and knowledge of Hepatitis B vaccination have better practice of Hepatitis B
vaccination.