Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug;11(3):125-132.
doi: 10.5582/irdr.2022.01062.

Knowledge and perception of inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) among healthcare students at a selected public university in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Shi Hui Liew  1 , Jing Ying Lim  2   3 , Hanis Mastura Yahya  1   3 , Roslee Rajikan  1   3
Affiliations

Knowledge and perception of inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) among healthcare students at a selected public university in Klang Valley, Malaysia

Shi Hui Liew et al. Intractable Rare Dis Res. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Healthcare providers play an important role in improving the health of Inborn Error of Metabolism (IEM) patients. However, IEM knowledge level among local healthcare students has yet to be determined. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and perception of IEM among local healthcare students. An online self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 378 students across the Faculty of Health Science, Pharmacy and Dentistry from a selected public university in Lembah Klang, Malaysia. For knowledge, a score of 1 is assigned to each correct answer with a maximum total score of 14. Likert scale was used to determine their perception of IEM. The total mean score of IEM knowledge among healthcare students is 5.8. There was no significant difference of mean score of IEM knowledge among the students from the Faculty of Health Science (6.1 ± 2.7), Pharmacy (5.5 ± 2.6) and Dentistry (5.8 ± 2.8). However, the score of knowledge is observed to be significantly different by ethnicity, religion and family history of IEM (p < 0.05). Furthermore, students with experience of meeting an IEM patient and attending IEM classes scored higher than those with no experience (p < 0.05). Most of the healthcare students (89.5%) perceived their knowledge to be insufficient and very poor. Majority of the students from faculty of pharmacy (70.8%) agreed that the IEM course should be mandatory compared to health sciences and dentistry (p < 0.05). This study identified an overall inadequacy of knowledge of IEM among healthcare students. There is a pressing need to improve the IEM-related knowledge and awareness of Malaysian healthcare students. This can be accomplished by incorporating online classes that emphasizes the treatment and management of IEMs in the university curriculum.

Keywords: healthcare; inborn errors metabolism; knowledge; perception.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Proportion of respondents indicating different name of diseases (IEM and non-IEM) as IEM.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Student perceptions of (A) increasing their knowledge and (B) source of information on IEM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Ezgu F. Inborn Errors of Metabolism. In: Advances in Clinical Chemistry (Makowski G, ed.Elsevier Inc, Turkey, 2016; pp.195-250. - PubMed
    1. Waters D, Adeloye D, Woolham D, Wastnedge E, Patel S, Rudan I. Global birth prevalence and mortality from inborn errors of metabolism: a systematic analysis of the evidence. J Glob Health. 2018; 8:021102. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shafie AA, Supian A, Hassali MAA, Ngu LH, Thong MK, Ayob H, Chaiyakunapruk N. Rare disease in Malaysia: Challenges and solutions. PLoS One. 2020; 15:e0230850. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yunus ZM, Rahman SA, Choy YS, Keng WT, Ngu LH. Pilot study of newborn screening of inborn error of metabolism using tandem mass spectrometry in Malaysia: outcome and challenges. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2016; 29:1031-1039. - PubMed
    1. Vernon HJ. Inborn errors of metabolism: advances in diagnosis and therapy. JAMA Pediatrics. 2015; 169:778-782. - PubMed