METHOD: This was a cross-sectional study involving SLE patients aged 18-56 years from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Employment history was obtained from clinical interviews. WD was defined as unemployment, interruption of employment or premature cessation of employment due to SLE at any time after the diagnosis. SLE disease characteristics, presence of organ damage and Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment-SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) flare index were determined from the medical records. Self-reported quality of life (QoL) was performed using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36). Demographic factors, disease characteristics, and QoL were compared between patients with and without WD using statistical analyses.
RESULTS: A total of 215 patients were recruited and the majority were Malay (60.5%), followed by Chinese (33.5%), Indian (4.5%) and others (n = 4, 1.9%). The prevalence of WD was 43.2% (n = 93) with 22.3% (n = 48) patients were unemployed at the time of study. Over half the patients with WD (n = 51, 54.8%) had onset of disability at <5 years from diagnosis. Patients with WD had significantly lower health-related QoL. The independent factors associated with WD were SLEDAI score at diagnosis, frequency of flare, Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics score, being married, had lower education and lupus nephritis.
CONCLUSION: We found a high rate of WD in patients with SLE and it was significantly associated with SLE-related factors, in particular higher disease activity, presence of renal involvement and organ damage.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) from June 2015 to May 2016. The mVHI-10 was produced following a rigorous forward and backward translation. One hundred participants, including 50 healthy volunteers (17 male, 33 female) and 50 patients with voice disorders (26 male, 24 female), were recruited to complete the mVHI-10 before flexible laryngoscopic examinations and acoustic analysis. The mVHI-10 was repeated in 2 weeks via telephone interview or clinic visit. Its reliability and validity were assessed using interclass correlation.
RESULTS: The test-retest reliability for total mVHI-10 and each item score was high, with the Cronbach alpha of >0.90. The total mVHI-10 score and domain scores were significantly higher (P
METHODS: The AD8 was translated into Malay for Malay-speaking participants. A correlation analysis and a receiver operator characteristic curve were generated to establish the psychometric properties of the AD8 in relation to the MoCA.
RESULTS: One hundred fifty patients and their caretakers completed the AD8 and MoCA. Using a cutoff score of 1/8, the AD8 had 81% sensitivity and 59% specificity for the detection of cognitive impairment in PD. With a cutoff score of 2/8, the AD8 had 83% specificity and 64% sensitivity. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve was 80%, indicating good-to-excellent discriminative ability.
DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that the AD8 can reliably differentiate between cognitively impaired and cognitively normal patients with PD and is a useful caregiver screening tool for PD.
METHOD: We translated into Malay a brief screening instrument for ascertainment of epilepsy designed and validated by Ottman et al., using the three-stage cross-cultural adaptation process developed by the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) project. We then administered the translated questionnaire via online survey to 162 cases (patients with epilepsy under follow-up care at the neurology clinic in University of Malaya Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur) and 146 controls with no known history of epilepsy for validation.
RESULTS: Applying the most liberal definition for a positive screen, we obtained a sensitivity of 96.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 91.8-98.5%), with a specificity of 66.4% (95% CI: 58.1-73.0%) and positive predictive value (PPV) of 2.0%. The most stringent definition for a positive screen (only epilepsy) resulted in a sensitivity of 97.4% (95% CI: 62.0-72.6%), specificity of 98.6% (95% CI: 94.6-99.7%), and PPV of 26.6%. Narrowing the definition of a positive screen decreased sensitivity but improved PPVs. When compared to the original English questionnaire, the sensitivities were similar for all four definitions of a positive screen.
CONCLUSION: This is the first validated epilepsy screening questionnaire in the Malay language and represents a useful tool for the ascertainment of epilepsy in population-based studies.