Risk Perception of COVID-19 and Its Associated Factors Among Indigenous Population in Malaysia

Authors

  • Ummi Mirza Baharudin Dr
  • Zaleha Md Isa Prof Dr
  • Aniza Ismail
  • Muhammad Hilmi Mahmud
  • Faiz Daud
  • Siti Fairuz Abu Bakar

Keywords:

Risk Perception, COVID-19, Indigenous Population, Associated Factors

Abstract

Introduction:

Indigenous people have a higher risk of experiencing the bad impact of COVID-19 once they are infected. This study aimed to identify the risk perception of COVID-19 among indigenous population and its associated factors.

Method:

This is a cross-sectional study with psychometric evaluation of the Malay version of the risk perception of COVID-19 questionnaire.

Result:

A total of 408 indigenous adults of the Semai tribe from a remote rural area of Pahang participated in the study. For psychometric evaluation, the item internal consistency reliability was 0.87, while the item separation was 2.57. Descriptively, mean age was 36-year-old (SD ±14), woman (60.8%), mean household income RM170 (SD ± RM355), had informal education (36%) and had job (92.9%).  The cross-sectional finding highlighted that those who had job (adj.OR 4, CI: 1.118-14.374), had knowledge on COVID-19 (adj.OR 3.78, CI: 1.247-11.448), higher health literacy score (adj.OR 3.3, CI:1.262-8.852), higher trust on information (adj.OR 2.95, CI:1.071-8.109) and used more frequent information on COVID-19 (adj.OR 5.77, CI:1.228-27.063) had higher risk perception on COVID-19. Those did not agree to lift the government restriction has a protective factor in the level of risk perception on COVID-19 (OR 0.34, CI:0.131-0.879).

Conclusion:

The indigenous population in Malaysia has a high-risk perception of COVID-19; however, they need assistance complying with the government policy on preventive and control measures.

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Published

2024-09-02

How to Cite

Baharudin, U. M., Md Isa, Z., Ismail, A., Mahmud, M. H., Daud, F., & Abu Bakar, S. F. (2024). Risk Perception of COVID-19 and Its Associated Factors Among Indigenous Population in Malaysia . International Journal of Public Health Research, 14(2), 1909–1916. Retrieved from https://spaj.ukm.my/ijphr/index.php/ijphr/article/view/488

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2024): International Journal of Public Health Research

Section

Public Health Research

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Ummi Mirza Baharudin, Zaleha Md Isa, Aniza Ismail, Muhammad Hilmi Mahmud, Faiz Daud, Siti Fairuz Abu Bakar

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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