Knowledge, Awareness and Perception of Malaysian University Students on Regenerative Medicine and Willingness to Accept and Pay for Regenerative Medicine Therapies Ramachandren K1, Ess Tan1,*, Tan CK1, Thiagarajah S1 1School of Healthy Aging, Medical Aesthetics and Regenerative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, UCSI University, 56000, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia *Corresponding author: Tan Ess, E-mail: eugenietan@ucsiuniversity.edu.my
Online published on 30 April, 2019. Abstract Regenerative Medicine (RM) is an interdisciplinary field with countless potentials and serves as a solution for the growing rate chronic diseases, communicable and non-communicable diseases in developing countries. For the past 23 years, Malaysia has been exploring this field for the boon RM holds. This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, awareness and perception of Malaysian university students on Regenerative Medicine. A cross sectional, quantitative pilot study was conducted among 390 Malaysian university students above 18-year-old from government and private universities with science background through convenient sampling. Key results showed that Medical and health science students had more awareness and higher knowledge on RM than engineering and physical science students (p<0.001). Significant association between the types of course enrolled and awareness/knowledge on RM observed (p<0.05). There were significant associations between the level of knowledge and the awareness, willingness to accept and pay for RM therapies/courses (p<0.05). Other demographics did not influence their level of knowledge. Significant association seen between WTP and acceptability of Embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) p<0.05. Students with moderate to good level of knowledge have more awareness, more supportive and showed positive perception towards RM. Top Keywords Regenerative medicine, awareness, knowledge, perception. Top |