Ranimah Yahya, Rosediani Muhamad , Harmy Mohamed Yusoff
Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been realized as a primary cause of death in women for almost a century. However, the relationship between women’s knowledge, their wish and action on practicing heart healthy lifestyle is still vague.
Aim and Objectives: This research aimed to determine the association between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and practice and attitude and practice on cardiovascular disease among women in Kelantan. Methods/ Study Design: A cross sectional study was conducted in Kelantan, Malaysia. A total of 448 women attended primary care facilities in Kelantan were included in this study. Twostage sampling process was used to select clinics in all districts in Kelantan followed by female participants from selected clinics attendance lists. Recruited were non illiterate young adult women up to 65 years of age and without psychotic symptoms. Consented participants were given a set of validated KAP questionnaire that should be completed within 15 minutes.
Findings: The respondents’ mean age was about 40 years with majority of them having secondary educational level and coming from low socio-economic group. Among them, 56.8% involved in tobacco products and 41.3% reported as having CVD related medical illnesses, especially obesity (23.7%) and hypertension (17.6%). About 56.2% had family history of CVD risk. Only 26.8% of them obtained the CVD information from health care workers. The good knowledge, attitude and practice score were 55.6%, 55.1 % and 51.1% accordingly. There were significant association between attitude and knowledge, practice and knowledge and practice and attitude which were found to be strong (0.10, 0.20), (0.10, 0.18) and (0.26, 0.40) 95% CI, respectively and is independent with socio-demographic and personal disease characteristic. Conclusion: Positive relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice will encourage primary care doctors to take this challenge to educate, motivate community and provide full support to those who wish to modify their lifestyle.
