Stakeholder's Attitude towards Fogging Technique in Malaysia

Several dengue control techniques have been introduced in order to protect public health and promote a dengue-free environment. However, fogging remains the main technique of controlling dengue vectors in Malaysia. This study was aims to evaluate and compare the attitudes towards fogging across gender, stakeholders, religion, education level and age. A total of 399 adult respondents in the Klang Valley, Malaysia were chosen randomly to be involved in this study. Results of the study showed that the stakeholders, which are mostly scientists and general public, have high trust on the key actors such as government, research institutions, pesticides and pharmaceutical industries which involves controlling dengue. They rated fogging highly beneficial while encouraging its application. The stakeholder's attitudes were also found to be attached with religious values. In relation, they were more inclined to prioritize nature as compared to materials. One-way MANOVA detected significant differences across gender, stakeholders, religion, education level and age. PostHoc analysis confirmed that significant differences were only detected for perceived risk and encouragement across age, while religiousness differs across education level. Further analysis of ANOVA also confirmed significant differences for perceived risk across stakeholders, while religiousness differs across gender and religion. The results of this study are important as a useful benchmark for those involved in dengue control to understand the attitude of stakeholders towards fogging techniques.