Public knowledge, perception and communication behavior surrounding
COVID-19 in Malaysia
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is the first to occur in an age of
hyperconnectivity. This paper presents results from an online anonymous
survey conducted in Malay, English, and Chinese, during the first week
of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia (n=1075), which aimed to
examine public knowledge, perception and communication behavior in the
Malaysian society in the face of a sudden outbreak and social distancing
measures. Although the level of public knowledge, risk perception and
positive communication behavior surrounding COVID-19 was high, a
majority of respondents reported receiving a lot of questionable
information. Multinomial logistic regression further identified that
responses to different items varied significantly across respondent
survey language, gender, age, education level and employment status.