METHODS: We illustrate the results of a large cohort of newly diagnosed adults ITP from southern Pakistan. The study extended from January 2009-December 2013. Complete blood counts, HbsAg, Anti-HCV, ANA, stool for Helicobacterpylori were done on all. HIV, TSH, anti-dsDNA, RA factor, APLA and direct coombs test were evaluated in cases where indicated.
RESULTS: A total of 417 patients were included with a mean age of 40.95±14.82 years. Primarily disease was observed in the 3rd decade of life. Male to female ratio was 1:1.5. Mean platelets count was 46.21±27.45x109/l. At diagnosis 43.16% (n=180) patients had hemorrhagic manifestations whilst 56.8% (n=237) were asymptomatic. None of the patient presented with visceral, retropharyngeal or intracranial bleed. The prevalence of secondary ITP was substantially higher (64.8%) as compared to primary ITP (35.2%). Secondary ITP was predominantly seen in HCV reactive patients (24.4%) followed by helicobacter-pylori infection (11%). Nevertheless 16.4% patients had underlying autoimmune disorders. Providentially no study subject was found to be HIV reactive.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed predominance of secondary ITP. However bleeding manifestations and degree of thrombocytopenia were high in primary-ITP. Infectious etiology followed by autoimmune disorders is mainly implicated for secondary ITP in our setting.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study evaluated the psychometric properties of Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Healthcare Provider Student (JSE-HPS) and empathic behaviour of dietetics students.
RESULTS: Undergraduate dietetics students from one private and two public universities in Malaysia participated (n = 455). Item and scale psychometric properties were examined using principal component analysis and differences in mean empathy scores for students were assessed across years of study and types of universities. A 3-factor solution emerged in the results, accounting for 26.76%, 10.75% and 6.3% of the variance. The JSE-HPS demonstrated good internal consistency (α = 0.83). Despite students enroled at public universities scoring higher mean empathy scores than students enroled at the private university, the difference was not significant. The only significant difference was between the empathy level of first and third year students (p = 0.033).
CONCLUSION: As empathy underpins patient-centred management in the nutrition care process, it should be well integrated into curriculum delivery so that appropriate levels of empathy can be developed to prepare work-ready healthcare professionals.
DESIGN: A required 2-credit-hour course was designed to provide an overview of public health pharmacy roles and the behavioral aspects of human healthcare issues. Graded activities included nursing home visits, in-class quizzes, mini-projects, and poster sessions, and a comprehensive final examination.
ASSESSMENT: The majority of the students performed well on the class activities and 93 (71.5%) of the 130 students enrolled received a grade of B or higher. A Web-based survey was administered at the end of the semester and 90% of students indicated that they had benefited from the course and were glad that it was offered. The majority of students agreed that the course made an impact in preparing them for their future role as pharmacists and expanded their understanding of the public health roles of a pharmacist.
CONCLUSIONS: A public health pharmacy course was successfully designed and implemented in the BPharm curriculum. This study highlighted the feasibilities of introducing courses that are of global relevance into a Malaysian pharmacy curriculum. The findings from the students' evaluation suggest the needs to incorporate a similar course in all pharmacy schools in the country and will be used as a guide to improve the contents and methods of delivery of the course at our school.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study included data from 344 older (173 inpatients and 171 outpatients) patients, aged 60 years and above, through validated questionnaires. Medication appropriateness was assessed via Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) tool, whereas Beers and Screening Tool of Older Person's Potentially Inappropriate Prescribing (STOPP) criteria were used to evaluate PIMs and potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP), respectively. The Drug Burden Index (DBI) and polypharmacy, as well as PROs, included Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI), Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (Katz ADL) and Older People's Quality of Life (OPQOL) were also evaluated.
RESULTS: Overall, inpatients received significantly higher medications (6.90 ± 2.70 vs 4.49 ± 3.20) than outpatients. A significantly higher proportion of inpatients received at least one PIM (65% vs 57%) or PIP (57.4% vs 17.0%) and higher mean MAI score (1.76 ± 1.08 and 1.10 ± 0.34) and DBI score (2.67 ± 1.28 vs 1.49 ± 1.17) than outpatients. Inpatients had significantly higher total OPQOL (118.53 vs 79.95) and GFI score (5.44 vs 3.78) than outpatients. We only found significant correlations between GFI and DBI and total OPQOL and the number of PIMs.
CONCLUSIONS: Proportions of PIMs and DBI exposure were significantly higher in an inpatient setting. No significant correlations between exposures to inappropriate medications or drug burden and PROs were observed.
METHODS: The subjects of this study included 202 elderly (≥65 years) residents of 17 aged care homes in suburban peninsular Malaysia. Frailty was measured using the Groningen Frailty Indicator (GFI) score and independence in daily living was measured as KATZ activity of daily living score. Medication appropriateness was assessed using the Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI) and 2015 Beers' criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication (PIM).
RESULTS: CNS medications constituted about 16% of the total, with an average of 0.8 ± 1.1 medications per resident, which reduced to 0.5 ± 0.8 medications after 3 months. Frailty (154/202) and polypharmacy (90/202) were highly prevalent in study subjects. Subjects on CNS medications had significantly higher GFI score (7.1 vs. 5.9; p = 0.031), polypharmacy (57.8 vs. 35.3%; p = 0.002), number of PIMs (0.9 vs. 0.2; p = 0.001), and mean summed MAI score (3.6 vs. 2.6; p = 0.015) than subjects not on CNS medications. Medication number was also significantly correlated with GFI (r = 0.194; p = 0.006) and KATZ (r = 0.141; p = 0.046) scores.
CONCLUSION: Frailty and polypharmacy were highly prevalent among aged care home subjects taking CNS medications. These findings support the notion that periodic regular medication review should improve the overall use of medications in elderly patients.
METHODS: A validated self-administered questionnaire was used in this cross-sectional study to collect data from final-year BPharm students enrolled at 3 government-funded universities and 1 private university in Malaysia. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis.
RESULTS: Three hundred fourteen students responded (213 from public universities and 101 from the private university). Approximately 32% of public university students and 37% of private university students ranked their own interest in pharmacy as the reason for undertaking pharmacy degree studies; 40.4% of public and 19.8% of private university respondents stated that they would enter a nonpharmacy-related career upon graduation if given the choice. Public university students ranked hospital pharmacy as their choice of first career setting (4.39, p = 0.001), while private students ranked community pharmacy first (4.1, p = 0.002). On a scale of 1 to 5, salary received the highest mean score (3.9 and 4.0, p = 0.854) as the extrinsic factor most influencing their career choice.
CONCLUSIONS: Final-year students at Malaysian public universities were most interested in hospital pharmacy practice as their first career step upon graduation, while private university students were most interested in community pharmacy. The top 3 extrinsic factors rated as significant in selecting a career destination were salary, benefits, and geographical location.
Methods: The current study was cross-sectional population-based and used a convenient sampling technique. Moreover, Lorenz's formula was used to calculate the sample size and the required sample size was 480. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with a pre-validated questionnaire and the study was conducted in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, and logistic regression were executed by using SPSS version 24.
Results: Out of 480 participants, 45.8% were polled male and the prevalence of SMA in this study was found to be 15.1%. The majority of participants 23.1% indicated that they practiced antibiotics at least once in the last six months. The commonly self-medicated antibiotics were amoxicillin-clavulanate 20.6%, ampicillin/cloxacillin 14.2%, and levofloxacin 8.3%. Moreover, 64.8% of participants indicated that they bought their antibiotics from pharmacies. Whereas, most of the participants practice antibiotics to save money 19.2% and time 23.1%. Findings from multivariate logistic regressions showed that predictors of SMA were male gender, (95% CI: 0.300-0.877) occupation (95% CI: 0.122-10.797), health insurance (95% CI: 0.025-0.472), and education (95% CI: 0.084-0.800).
Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that SMA persists among the community and education level has a significant impact on this behavior. Thus, concerning health management authorities should step in with developing legislation to stop this practice, and by implementing such interventions and policies to educate and to raise awareness about the risk of SMA for the future.
METHOD: A cross-sectional study among pharmacy students. Data were analyzed with Chi-square to find difference at p value < 0.05.
RESULTS: The majority of students (83.07%) responded showing a difference in gender and race. Students showed low willingness (9.2%) to assist patients and low confidence (36.1%) in their education about HIV/AIDS patients. Students recommended HIV testing for health care professionals (69.4%) and patients (75.9%) before surgical procedures. Students knew little about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (18.5%) or about the time for HIV to develop into AIDS (57.4%). About 40% of students were unaware of the inability of antivirals to treat HIV/AIDS. Students had low awareness for opportunistic infections (18.5%), and low agreement on competency to treat and counsel HIV patients (12.9%).
CONCLUSION: The study highlighted students' misconceptions, negative attitudes, and risk perceptions towards HIV/AIDS.