Kelab Doktor Muda (KDM) which translates as Young Doctors Club was established by the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia to train a group of schoolchildren as educators in assisting their peers to adopt healthy practices. This research aims to assess the effectiveness of KDM as a peer education program to increase the health knowledge of school children, and instil healthy practices among schoolchildren by identifying the difference in the level of knowledge, attitude and health practice between school with KDM (SKDM) and school without KDM (NKDM). This is a nationwide comparative cross-sectional study between SKDM and NKDM. This study was carried out between March 2016 and March 2017. Data were obtained using a guided self-administered questionnaire through survey involving 2588 (1294 SKDM; 1294 NKDM) year 5 (11 years old) schoolchildren from 87 primary schools nationwide. The results revealed a significantly higher overall knowledge score of health practices, knowledge and practice score for No Smoking component, as well as hand hygiene knowledge in SKDM compared to NKDM. Schoolchildren in SKDM also had significantly lower BMI compared to NKDM, directly related to healthy eating, active lifestyle and ideal body weight, 3 of the 6 components in this program. As a conclusion, the program was found to be not only effective in increasing the overall knowledge of health practice among schoolchildren, but also results in a meaningful impact to the health of schoolchildren. Further improvements to the modules however should be undertaken to enable more comprehensive changes on the health practices of schoolchildren.

Dengue is one of the public health concerns in developing and developed countries. Since the main control measure for dengue is health prevention and control activities, especially among children, it is essential to assess children’s knowledge on dengue prevention activities in preventing the disease. This study aimed to develop an assessment tool (CAB-IHBR-Dengue-C-01) attempting to measure children’s knowledge of dengue prevention activities in Malaysia. Twelve (12) pictorials with descriptions were developed to capture children’s understanding of the correct method of dengue prevention activities. Cronbach’ alpha test was used to assess the internal consistency of the items, and the test and retest reliability method was used to measure the consistency of the questionnaire. For test-retest reliability analysis, tests were conducted twice, with an interval of two (2) weeks from the first test. In total, 58 respondents comprising of Malay, Chinese, and Indian aged between 7 and 12 years old were included in this study. The results showed the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) score was 0.640; with moderate reliability; meanwhile, Cronbach’s alpha score was 0.606. In conclusion, CAB-IHBR-Dengue-C-01 (Cognitive Affective Behaviour-Institute for Health Behavioural Research-Dengue-Children-Version 01) is reliable to be used.