Factors associated with knowledge on healthy community, empowers nation (KOSPEN) and its implementation among community health volunteers in Kulim district, 2017 (ada comment di pdf)

• Main Author: Sondaram, Navindra Kumar
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/71076/1/FPSK%28M%29%202017%2032%20IR.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/71076/

Introduction: The increasing burden of Non-Communicable Diseases and their prevalence has led Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia to introduce a community empowerment program “Komuniti Sihat, Perkasa Negara” acronymed as KOSPEN in July 2013. Thirty thousand community health volunteers have been trained nationwide up to May 2015. Objective: To identify the factors associated with knowledge on KOSPEN and its implementation among community health volunteers in Kulim District. Methods: A cross-sectional study based on simple random sampling was conducted among community health volunteers registered under KOSPEN program in Kulim District. All the community health volunteers who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were invited to participate in this study. Data collected using self-administered questionnaire adapted from a study conducted by the Institute of Public Health, Malaysia. All data collected were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 involving descriptive and inferential statistics with significance level set at 0.05. Result: The study found that level of knowledge on KOSPEN is associated with employment status (p=0.02) and awareness level (p<0.001) among the community health volunteers. The level of implementation is associated with age (p=0.025), education level (p=0.007) and employment status (p=0.017) of the community health volunteers. Employment status (aOR=2.133, 95% CI=1.056-4.306, p=0.035) and awareness level (aOR=6.119, 95% CI=2.701-13.867 p<0.001) were predictors of level of knowledge on KOSPEN. Level of implementation of KOSPEN by the community health volunteers could be predicted by education level (aOR=4.085, 95% CI=1.299-12.851 p=0.016). Conclusion: Generally the KOSPEN volunteers had good knowledge on KOSPEN and implementation of KOSPEN program. However, there are still misconceptions among the KOSPEN volunteers regarding their functions and role. Therefore it is important to empower the volunteers with awareness on their roles, functions and good knowledge.