OBJECTIVE: We determined the agreement of cytological diagnoses made on samples collected by women themselves (selfsampling) versus samples collected by physicians (Physician sampling).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We invited women volunteers to undergo two procedures; cervical selfsampling using the Evalyn brush and physician sampling using a Cervex brush. The women were shown a video presentation on how to take their own cervical samples before the procedure. The samples taken by physicians were taken as per routine testing (Gold Standard). All samples were subjected to Thin Prep monolayer smears. The diagnoses made were according to the Bethesda classification. The results from these two sampling methods were analysed and compared.
RESULTS: A total of 367 women were recruited into the study, ranging from 22 to 65 years age. There was a significant good agreement of the cytological diagnoses made on the samples from the two sampling methods with the Kappa value of 0.568 (p=0.040). Using the cytological smears taken by physicians as the gold standard, the sensitivity of selfsampling was 71.9% (95% CI:70.972.8), the specificity was 86.6% (95% CI:85.7 87.5), the positive predictive value was 74.2% (95% CI:73.375.1) and the negative predictive value was 85.1% (95% CI: 84.286.0). Selfsampling smears (22.9%) allowed detection of microorganisms better than physicians samples (18.5%).
CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that samples taken by women themselves (selfsampling) and physicians have good diagnostic agreement. Selfsampling could be the method of choice in countries in which the coverage of women attending clinics for screening for cervical cancer is poor.
METHODS: A total of 162 students participated in this cross-sectional study that was conducted between May and September of 2015. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the variables of interest.
RESULTS: Most students knew exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first 6 months of life (98.1%). However, some students incorrectly thought formula milk can be given if the infant appears hungry after having been breastfed (61.7%). Additionally, some incorrectly thought expressed breastmilk can be warmed on direct heat (47.5%) and left-over expressed milk can be re-stored (60.5%). Most students agreed that exclusive breastfeeding is easier to practice than formula feeding and that it is the best choice for working mothers. Most students (93.2%) intend to breastfeed their children, and this intention was significantly associated with their experience being breastfed as infants and attitudes toward exclusive breastfeeding.
CONCLUSION: Generally, final year medical and dental students have favorable attitudes and future intentions toward exclusive breastfeeding, although some of them lacked knowledge about certain important aspects of the practice. Past experience of being exclusively breastfed and a more positive attitude toward the practice were associated with their future intentions to practice exclusive breastfeeding.
DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study.
STUDY SAMPLE: 1068 subjects issued with HAs at a tertiary hospital from 2001 to 2013.
RESULTS: Half of the subjects presented with more severe (>55 dB) hearing loss (HL) in their better ear. In multivariable analysis, older age, Malay ethnicity, conductive and mixed HL, and combination type of HL were associated with more severe HL at first presentation. Over 70% of subjects were older than 65 years. Worse pure tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds of the better ear, gradual onset and sensorineural HL were associated with older age presentation. For unilaterally fitted subjects, PTA thresholds were the only determinant of having the better ear aided. Better PTA thresholds, younger age and sensorineural HL were associated with choosing in ear compared to behind the ear HAs. Younger age and worse PTA of the better ear were associated with ≥4 h of daily HA usage.
CONCLUSIONS: Age, ethnicity and type of HL were important determinants for more severe HL at first HA fitting. Older patients and those with better hearing were less likely to use their HAs regularly.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study employed a validated, self-administered questionnaire which was administered to 543 first-year pharmacy students from nine different private universities. Factor analysis was utilised to extract key factors from the responses. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.
KEY FINDINGS: Eight factors motivating students' decision to study pharmacy emerged from the responses, accounting for 63.8% of the variance observed. Students were primarily motivated by intrinsic interests, with work conditions and profession attributes also exerting significant influence. In terms of choice of private university, nine factors were identified, accounting for 73.8% of the variance observed. The image of the school and university were most influential factors in this context, followed by university safety, programme attributes and financial factors.
CONCLUSIONS: First-year pharmacy students in the private higher education sector are motivated by intrinsic interest when choosing to study pharmacy over other courses, while their choice of private university is influenced primarily by the image of the school and university.
METHODS: Respondents were sampled with quotas for urbanicity, gender, age, and ethnicity to ensure representativeness of the Malaysian population. The study was conducted using a standardized protocol involving the EuroQol Valuation Technology (EQ-VT) computer-assisted interview system. Respondents were administered ten composite time trade-off (C-TTO) tasks and seven discrete choice experiment (DCE) tasks. Both linear main effects and constrained non-linear regression models of C-TTO-only data and hybrid models combining C-TTO and DCE data were explored to determine an efficient and informative model for value set prediction.
RESULTS: Data from 1125 respondents representative of the Malaysian population were included in the analysis. Logical consistency was present in all models tested. Using cross-validation, eight-parameter models for C-TTO only and C-TTO + DCE hybrid data displayed greater out-of-sample predictive accuracy than their 20-parameter, main-effect counterparts. The hybrid eight-parameter model was chosen to represent the Malaysian value set, as it displayed greater out-of-sample predictive accuracy over C-TTO data than the C-TTO-only model, and produced more precise estimates. The estimated value set ranged from - 0.442 to 1.
CONCLUSIONS: The constrained eight-parameter hybrid model demonstrated the best potential in representing the Malaysian value set. The presence of the Malaysian EQ-5D-5L value set will facilitate its application in research and health technology assessment activities.