Diagnosis of response behavioural patterns towards the risk of Pandemic Flu Influenza A (H1N1) of urban community based on Rasch measurement model

The development of Rasch measurement model has rapidly expanded from social science, educational fields, engineering and recently in the area of health science research. This revisited study has made an attempt to apply the Rasch measurement model in the field of health sciences to investigate the response behavioural patterns of local urban community regarding the risk of Pandemic Flu, Influenza A (H1N1). These variables include subjects´ response behaviour towards HINI treatment effectiveness, knowledge, perceived risk, attitude and preventive practices towards HINI. This study aims to validate the items in the instrument, and then investigate the response patterns using the Rasch measurement tools. The study had used secondary survey data provided by the Department of Population Health and Preventive Medicine (PHPM), Faculty of Medicine, UiTM Shah Alam which were collected from communities residing at two different locations in Selangor, Malaysia. A Rasch probabilistic measurement model is used to examine whether respondents were providing appropriate responses towards the instrument items in the H1N1 study. Results of the analysis show that respondents with different characteristics or background have provided true response which resulted in the communities displaying moderate degree of knowledge and awareness towards the risk of H1N1.