Abstract
INTRODUCTION Growing Muslim population derives Halal Pharmaceuticals (HP) market. Malaysia stands out from the rest of Muslims’ countries by having the first world Halal Pharmaceutical Standards MS2424:2012 and recognized Chemical Company of Malaysia for having the world’s first halal prescriptive medicines certification. Purpose: The objective of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards HP among patients in Malaysian Armed Forces hospital and a part of military initiatives on Shariah Compliance Pharmacy Practice Program.
METHODS This was a cross-sectional study design. A validated, Malay language, paper-based self-adminis- tered questionnaire was distributed to 390 patients.
RESULTS The respondents had good level of knowledge with the mean score was 10.73 ± 0.13 (total score=14) and positive attitude towards HP with mean score was 34.31 ± 0.22 (total score=40). The respondents demonstrated poor practice towards HP with mean score was 14.56 ± 0.28 (total score=30). Logistic regression used to quantify the relationship between socio-demographic data with the KAP level towards HP. For knowledge domain, gender (OR=3.59; 95% CI=1.719, 7.499; p=0.001), religion status (OR=0.256; 95% CI=0.100, 0.656; p=0.005) and ed- ucation level (OR=0.474; 95% CI=0.280, 0.803; p=0.006) significantly associated with the changes of knowledge level among respondents. While in attitude and practice domain, only religion status (OR=0.055; 95% CI=0.003, 0.943; p=0.045) and age (OR=1.281; 95% CI=1.081, 1.517; p=0.004) significantly associated with the chang- es of attitude level and practice level respectively. Pear- son correlation coefficient analysis found that there was a positive, significant but poor correlation between level of knowledge with level of attitude (r=0.162, p=0.001) and also between level of attitude with level of practice among respondents (r=0.161, p=0.001). However, there was a positive, significant and fair correlation between level of knowledge with level of practice (r=0.357, p<0.001).
CONCLUSION Respondents with better knowledge had a better practice towards halal pharmaceuticals.