Introduction: Dengue fever currently remains as one of the major public health issues in Malaysia. Dengue inci-dence in Malaysia has been increasing in the last 20 years. Dengue fever has been causing an economic burden to the country each year. Vector control is one of the preventions and control activities to reduce its incidence. Vector control activities, especially fogging is a resource-intensive activity. It uses most of the allocated budget of a district health office (33%). The major cost components of the prevention and control activities were human resources and pesticides with 60.7% were for human resources and 13.6% of the costs were for pesticides. Therefore, it is important to know, cost of each fogging activity and the factors that contribute to that cost. The objective of this study was to determine the costs of fogging activities carried out by Hulu Langat Health District Office, Selangor, Malaysia. Meth-ods: This study was a retrospective descriptive and analytical study using data from the Hulu Langat District Health Office for the year 2018. Cost analysis of fogging activities was carried out using the activity-based costing method-ology. The factors associated with, and predictors of, the costs of fogging activities were determined using chi-square and multiple linear regression. Results: In 2018, Hulu Langat District Health Office carried out total of 2,063 fogging activities. The average cost of each fogging activity was estimated as RM 1,579. Types of insecticides was statistically significant associated and predictive factor of the cost of fogging activity. Conclusion: The present study showed that the estimated average cost per fogging activity is RM 1,579 and water-based insecticide was found to be the cheaper option compared to oil-based insecticide. However, as this study did not determine the effectiveness of these insec-ticides, recommendations cannot be made as to which insecticide should be used.
Workplace violence become a global concern and perceived as a very serious safety and health hazard especially in healthcare setting. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of workplace violence and its associated risk factors among healthcare workers in public hospital. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which involved 136 randomly selected respondents among doctors and nurses in a public hospital in Kuala Lumpur. Data was gathered through a self-administered questionnaire consisted of two standardized questionnaire; Workplace Violence (WPV) and Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ-27). Results: The response rate was 91%. The prevalence of reported WPV was 71.3% where nurses (73.2%) had slightly higher prevalence than doctors (69.2%). The most common forms of WPV was verbal abuse (70.6%), followed by bullying/mobbing (29.4%), physical violence (11.0%), and sexual harassment (6.6%). The perpetrators were mostly among relatives of patients and visitors followed by the patients. Multiple logistic regression shows that respondents working in Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department was 17 times more likely to report workplace violence than those working in Pediatric Department. Also, for every 1 year younger, respondents were 5 times more likely to experience workplace violence controlling for other factors. Conclusion: The prevalence of workplace violent among respondents were high and most common among young workers, especially nurses and those working in A&E Department. Hence, further assessment should be carried out to reduce the identified risk factors and to find ways of solving this issue.