Assessment of awareness, knowledge, attitude, and the practice of vitamin D among the general public in Malaysia

Introduction: Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a global epidemic, which is still undertreated despite increased treatment availability and increase in therapeutic options. This study aimed to explore the awareness, knowledge, attitude and practices regarding Vitamin D among the general public in Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in a public area using a convenience sampling technique to recruit participants around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur shopping malls area. An anonymous self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection and it was circulated to 603 Malaysian. A total of 400 participants were completed and returned to the researchers. Result: Although 90.5% of the participants have heard/learnt about Vitamin D. About 78.0% of them showed limited knowledge about some aspects of Vitamin D with (mean ± SD = 1.78 ± 0.894). Additionally, there was a negative attitude towards Vitamin D and sunlight exposure. For instance, nearly 70.0% of the respondents did not like to expose themselves to sunlight. Only 30.0% of the participants had taken Vitamin D supplement before. There is a small, positive correlation between the knowledge score and education level, rho = 0.124, n = 400, P = 0.013, with a higher score associated with higher education level. Conclusion: The findings provided a piece of contemporary real-world evidence on the lack of knowledge and practices about Vitamin D among the general public. Therefore, extensive health educational campaigns for the public should be implemented by the government to raise their knowledge on the importance of Vitamin D. Keywords: knowledge; practice; vitamin D; public; Malaysia DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/jkahs.v2i3.2664