Oral health literacy (OHL) is important in empowering people to improve their general and oral health. Carers’ OHL may be associated with their ability to deliver good oral healthcare to their children. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the OHL among carers of special needs children. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of carers in four Community-Based Rehabilitation Centre. Data were collected through a structured face-to-face interview of 40 carers. Oral Health Literacy Malay Version (OHLI-M) was measured using text passages and prompts with a total of 57 items. These items were used to assess comprehension and numerical ability of carers based on domains namely, accessing dental care, understand appointment and following medication instructions. The results showed that majority of the participants had ‘marginal’ and ‘adequate’ OHL level of 32.5% and 52.5%, respectively. Only four (10%) participants had ‘inadequate’ OHL level. The ‘reading comprehension’ and ‘numeracy’ sections’ mean scores were 37.54 (95% CI 35.7-39.4) and 38.17 (95% CI 34.8-41.6). The total OHL mean score was 75.7 (95% CI 71.2-80.2). In conclusion, majority of the carers of special needs children in this sample had moderate OHL. Such information is important to develop more appropriate intervention programmes for carers to match their OHL.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevailing level of adherence to a dosing algorithm and a recall schedule and its relationship with the time in therapeutic range (TTR) among patients with atrial fibrillation.
METHODS: The study was carried out at a regional primary care clinic in Malaysia. Patients on anticoagulation therapy aged older than 18 years were included in the study. The participants have received continuation of their anticoagulation therapy at the primary care clinic for at least 6 months to 1 year after being discharged from a tertiary center. Correlation and multiple regression studies were performed to determine the significance of the predictors of TTR.
RESULTS: A majority (217) of patients with atrial fibrillation received anticoagulation therapy at the clinic followed by patients with mitral valve replacement and aortic valve replacement. The mean TTR for patients with atrial fibrillation was 57.6%. General practitioners (GPs) adhered to 75.5% of the dose protocol but fared poorly in adhering to the recall schedule (36.2%). The concordance to the dose algorithm and recall schedule were significantly related to TTR. Multiple regression analysis proved that the concordance to the dose algorithm and recall schedule were important predictors of the level of TTR in patients with atrial fibrillation.
DISCUSSION: The study provides preliminary evidence on the relationship between a validated dose algorithm that is integrated with a recall schedule in the control of TTR in patients with atrial fibrillation on anticoagulation treatment. A larger multicenter study is needed to confirm the results of this finding.
Study site: Klinik Kesihatan Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) may result in progressive visual impairment and blindness which affects the diabetic patients‟ morbidity and quality of life significantly. The objective of this study was to determine the proportions and prognostic factors of DR severity among Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. A cross sectional study was conducted at the Ophthalmology Clinic in a tertiary hospital using the medical record database from 2005 to 2011. A total of 216DR patients were randomly selected. The study outcome was DR severity which was classified into four grading based on the International Clinical Diabetic Retinopathy Scale. Descriptive statistics and Ordinal Logistic Regression were applied using Stata SE/11. The mean (SD) age of DR
in this study was 56.06 (9.98) years old with almost equal sex ratio. Proportion of mild non proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) was 48.6% (95% CI: 40.0, 60.0), moderate NPDR was 28.2% (95%CI: 22.0, 40.0), severe NPDR was 6.9% (95% CI: 4.0, 11.0) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) was 16.2% (95%CI: 10.0, 22.0). Diabetic patients that suffered from diabetes mellitus for more than 10 years, having nephropathy, every increased of HbA1c by 1% and higher total cholesterol were at increased risk of worsening DR.
Note: content of full text inconsistent with title and abstract. Author informed.
BACKGROUND: In order to provide a better healthcare education to the society, health care students should have an acceptable electronic health (E-Health) literacy.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the level of E-Health literacy of Medicine and Health Sciences university students in Mashhad, Iran.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed on 192 students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences using a validated Persian translate of the E-Health literacy scale (P-EHEALS) questionnaire in 2016. Demographic data including age, monthly income, level of education, preference of website for obtaining health related information and minutes of Internet use per day were obtained from the subjects. Independent-samples t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for comparison between groups, and Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression were used to assess the correlation between study parameters and EHEALS score using SPSS version 21.
RESULTS: A total of 192 (67.2% female and 32.8% male) subjects with mean age of 24.71±5.30 years participated in the study. Mean P-EHEALS score of the subjects was 28.21±6.95. There was a significant difference in P-EHEALS score between genders (p<0.001), department (p=0.001), education level (p<0.001) and health status (p=0.003) as well as monthly income (p=0.03), website preference categories (p=0.02). Male students were significantly more likely to gain higher P-EHEALS scores.
CONCLUSION: The level of E-Health literacy was low in Medical and Health Sciences university students in Mashhad. More studies are needed to assess the contributors to E-Health literacy.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in May 2007 on stress and stress self management among the prisoners and wardens of a prison in Selangor. This study was conducted as part of an elective posting for second year medical students and the topic was chosen to add on to the body of knowledge on stress among prisoners and wardens. A self administered questionnaire was distributed by random sampling and the respondents consisted of 100 prisoners and 97 wardens. Majority of the prisoners did not have stress with reference to interpersonal factors such as conflict with cellmates, conflict with wardens and conflict with inmates, For interpersonal factors, majority of the prisoners experienced stress because they felt bored (78%), thought they had no bright future (63%) and they also had no visitors (61%). Stress resulted in physical effects, whereby 67% admitted that they experienced health problems and 64% experienced sleep disturbance. Emotional effects of stress experienced by the prisoners were sadness (67%), anxiousness (63%) and confusion (56%). The major spiritual effect was regret (84%) followed by feeling closer to God (78%) and feeling high spirited (59%). The major social effects experienced by
the prisoners were low self esteem (63%) and embarrassment (58%). Methods of stress self management were prayers and conduct of religious activities (87%), sharing problems with friends (78%), doing recreational activities (77%), sleeping (72%) , doing a hobby (68) and seeking help from doctors (57%). As for the wardens, with reference to interpersonal factors, high level of stress was experience with reference ta prisoners behavior (82.5%) and problems with higher authorities (83.5 %), For intrapersonal factors, sleep disturbances (64%), career problems (76.3%), financial problems (73.2%) and feeling bored (75.3%) highly contributed to stress. Wardens physical effects were 38.1% health problems and 29.9% sleep disturbances. For emotional effects, must of them were depressed (54.6%), anxious (67%), angry (63.9%), confused (64.9%), frustrated (59.8%), threatened (53.6%) and patriotic (51.5%). The spiritual effect were feeling closer to God (86.6%), feeling responsible for duties (82.5%), regret doing the job (74.2%), feeling high spirited (58.8%). For social effects, low self esteem is the highest effect experienced (68%). Wardens managed stress by praying and conducting religious activities (91.8%), recreational activities (88.7%), doing a hobby (85.6%), sleeping (74.2%), and sharing problems (68%).
This study aimed to determine the psychosocial factors associated with school truancy in secondary school students attending three high risk schools in Kuala Lumpur. It is a cross-sectional study involving 373 Form Four students. Socio demographic, family, living and school characteristics of the respondents were obtained through self-administered questionnaires. There were significantly greater percentage of divorced parents (p=0.025, OR=2.52, 1.01
This is a cross sectional study to determine the attitudes and practices in smoking cessation counselling among dentists in Kelantan and to identify the barriers that prevent them from doing so. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 152 dentists practising in Kelantan. A total of 84 (55.2%) questionnaires were completed and returned. Although majority of the dentists (98.8%) agreed that they have a role in smoking cessation counselling, only few of them (17.9%) were actually involved in a considerable extent. The main barriers cited were lack of training and time in their practice. In conclusion, dentists in Kelantan believed that they have a role in smoking cessation counselling but their involvement was rather limited.
This study aims to identify the perception of third year physiotherapy students on the teaching and learning during clinical placements. A sample of 154 third year undergraduate and diploma students from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, the Universiti Teknologi Mara and the Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu completed the questionnaire. High internal reliability of teaching and learning activities scale in the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach alpha (α = 0.94). Findings showed significant differences (p < 0.05) of perception among students in the clinical block between different levels of education, the ideal number of students in a group during clinical teaching session, and in the activity of ‘patient-centered activities,’ as well as 'feedback to the student.’ These findings demonstrated that the level of education does influence the students’ perceptions on their teaching and learning during clinical placements. In conclusion, the level of education is a contributory factor that influences the students’ rate of learning in clinical education.
Keywords: Clinical education, physiotherapy students, perception, undergraduate, diploma
Stroke is among the main cause of death and loss of work capability in Malaysia. Government hospitals statistic shows drastic increase of stroke cases and deaths resulting from it. Hospital Kuala Lumpur's statistic recorded about 30% to 35% fatality in cases of stroke. The study was carried out to identify the level of stroke recovery and its associated factors. The study was carried out at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center (UKMMC), Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) and National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM). The sampling method was universal sampling and respondents were interviewed using guided questionnaire. The stroke recovery was studied to identify the relationshiP with social support, age, coping, stroke severity and lifestyle. The response rate of this study was 50.3%. A total of 47.0% ofstroke patient received high stroke recovery. Among five factors studied, three factors have shown the significant relationship with stroke recovery; coping style OR 0.293 (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 0.129·0.668, P "0.004); lifestyle, OR 0.347 (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 0.154· 0.782, p" 0.01) dan social support OR 0.291 (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 0.128· 0.664, P"0.004), Establish significant relationshiP of stroke recovery with three studied factors which were social support, coping style and lifestyle. Most of the stroke patients in this study are retirees and housewives. These three factors are required further attention to ensure stroke patients recover.
Key words: Recovery, stroke, social support, coping, lifestyle
Summary of Paper: This study aimed to assess the knowledge on basic sciences and clinical psychiatry (psychopathology and clinical syndromes) of the part I candidates on the mock MCQ paper. Methodology and results: The study is a descriptive and cross-sectional study and was carried out in a group of postgraduate students in psychiatry from Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya (UM) attending a series of revision course organized by the Department of Psychiatry, UKM. Revision course in psychiatry is an annual intensive course organized by the Department of Psychiatry, UKM to help young candidates preparing postgraduate psychiatry examination to refresh and consolidate their knowledge on basic sciences and clinical psychiatry. Candidates from various universities sitting for part 1 exam and completed their lectures and training in area of basic sciences are invited to attend this course which is held in The Department of Psychiatry, Hospital UKM.
This study was carried out to gauge the level of job satisfaction among pharmacists in Malaysia. Surveys forms developed after referring to published studies, were mailed to 1700 pharmacist. Analysis of responses from 405 respondents revealed significant differences in job satisfaction with age, position held and monthly salary. Pharmacist within the age group of 26 to 35 were less satisfied with their work as compared to the other pharmacist. A monthly salary of more than RM8000 and prospects of promotion within an organization contributed to a high level of satisfaction among pharmacist. Sector of work and length of service did not appear to influence job satisfaction. Further analysis indicated that motivator factors and hygiene factors had a significant influence on job satisfaction, whereas job stress contributed toward dissatisfaction at work. The results of the study supported Herzberg’s theory, which states the motivator factors were far more important than hygiene factors in providing job satisfaction. From this study, it appeared that more than 50% of the pharmacists who responded had at least a moderate level of job satisfaction. However, efforts can be taken by employers to further improve job satisfaction among Malaysian pharmacists.
There is high expectation from the population on part of the healthcare providers. These include; skilful and timely medication administration; and knowledge, honesty, listening skills, availability and professional attitude. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the expectation of population with regards to the healthcare providers in Turkey. A cross- sectional study was conducted in Turkey, including both rural and urban population, carried out from October 2011 till January 2012. A total of 540 household heads were selected using multistage random sampling technique. Data was collected using modified self-administered 16-items QUOTE (Quality of Care Through the Patients’ Eyes) questionnaire. The questionnaire measures communication/ accessibility, organizational skills and professional skills. The response rate was (77.1%) and data was analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0. All the aspects measured using QUOTE questionnaire were found to be important by the majority of respondents, but with varying degrees of priority. The quality aspects related to the professional skills of physicians was ranked first followed by communication/ accessibility and last but not the least is the organizational skills of health care providers. This study explored the Turkish people priorities and expectations regarding healthcare providers. The public priorities and expectation were different across population. This may reflect the need to understand people's expectations before providing the services to avoid complaints that may occur after the services have been rendered.
Surgeries are seen as stressors that trigger preoperative anxiety. Preparing the patients for surgery through preoperative teaching becomes crucial to allay anxiety level. In a cross sectional descriptive study conducted on eighty patients (age: 18–65 yr) who had undergone open abdominal surgery, 78.8% (n=63) stated that they experienced anxiety prior to surgery. Among these anxious respondents, 47.5% (n=38) experienced high state anxiety. Three of the top information that patients perceived as important to allay anxiety towards major surgery were: details of surgery, details of nursing care to surgery and information on anaesthesia. Nurses working in the surgical wards need to proactively address patients’ psychological concerns towards surgery and provide preoperative information based on patients’ needs to allay anxiety.
The art of talking to patients and their relatives does not come naturally to most of us and the ability to put oneself in the patients’ predicament is difficult particularly for the young doctors. To identify the communication abilities of the young doctors, a cross sectional study was carried out on 32 house officers who graduated from UKM in 2004 during their house jobs at different hospitals in Malaysia. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect the data. Fifty nine percent respondents claimed that they had communicated very well with patients while 69% with support staff and 88% with peers. On the other hand 38% and 41% of the respondents claimed they communicated very well with their superiors and families of patients. Only 22% of the graduates’ skills of communication in breaking bad news were very well, while 50% and 81% were very well in counselling patients and taking consent for procedures. Curriculum planners need to emphasize the importance ofdeveloping good communication skills in all aspects for the future doctors.
This survey was carried out to examine the habits of practising optometrists in private practice around Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley. A questionnaire survey was prepared that encompassed questions on ophthalmic intruments and appliances, services offered, eye examinatians carried aut and patient management, failure ta carry out comprehensive eye examination, community engagements and their opinion on optometrists as primary eyecare practitioners. The questionnaire was sent to 100 registered optometrists practising in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley. About 64 optometrists responded and returned the questionnaire, but 3 of them were excluded because they were incomplete. The results showed almast all aptornetric practice has all the equipment related to optometry practice except for tonometer and visual field measurement. F orty~four percent ( 44%) of aptometrists undertook comprehensive eye examinatians and necessary referred patients far further examinations. Optometrists who did not perform comprehensive eye examinations give reasons of inadequate equipment and clients who want a quick examination. ln conclusion optometric practice provide almost all the equipments required for optometrists to practice as primary health care practioners but only 44% of optometrists carriedout comprehensive eye examinations. Optometrists in private practice need to practice all the skills they learned and play important roles in educating the public in an effort to improve the primary eyecare of society. Keywords: optometric practice, private practice, primary health eyecare
In this study, real-time imaging was monitored for flowing solid particles when various baffles were created to block certain areas of the pipe. The generated flow regimes were full-flow, three-quarter-flow, half-flow and quarter-flow. A vertical pneumatic conveyor was designed to hold a 85 mm inner diameter pipeline. The four projection optical tomography systems used, applied the parallel beam projection approach and use infrared light sources so that the sensor was free of noise from the surrounding visible light source. The two orthogonal and two rectilinear projections were axial, but ideally they should have been in the same layer. The sensor readings could be related to the varying light intensity effects of the dropping particles and were used to provide cross-sectional distribution information for the conveyor. By using computer programming, the information was reconstructed to produce coloured images and concentration was obtained by reference to a colour code. The results obtained from this study showed how imaged flow followed the artificial flow regime. This study could benefit industrial production lines in maintaining the desired flow rates.
Backache is a common health problem associated with non ergonomic working environment. A cross sectional study amongst the rubber tappers was conducted to determine the prevalence of low back pain and ergonomic factors related to it. The respondents were 116 male rubber tappers from Felda scheme in the state of Pahang who were selected by random sampling. The result showed prevalence of low back pain was 60.3% and has significant association with history of backache (p<0.05). Rubber tappers were 6 times more higher to develop low back pain if they had history of backache (Odd Ratio =6.24, 95% CI). There were no significant association between socio-demographic factors and low back pain. Ergonomic factors such as bending during tapping, respondents’ height and duration of the tapping showed no significant association with low back pain. Further study should be done in ergonomic aspect to explore the problem.
Key words: Low back pain, rubber tapper, Felda, ergonomic.
Influx of women in the paid labor force had been identified as one of the important factors in raising awareness about work-family balance in organizations in developed countries in the west. The same phenomenon also occurs in Malaysia. Malaysia is considered as having traditional gender role ideology, whereby men and women have separate role in the workplace and in the family. Specifically, this study aims to identify whether there are differences in perception between men and women in public sector towards factors associated with work-life balance. Work-life balance factors examined in this study are work demands, supervisor support, organization’s family-friendly policies, family demands, work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC). Sixty questionnaires were administered to employees in a government health training institution in Sarawak, Malaysia. Data were analyzed using SPPS version 17 and independent t-Test was employed in testing the hypotheses. The study found that men and women are significantly different in terms of supervisor support, work-family conflict and family demands. However, there was no significant difference between men and women employees with regard to work demands, family-work conflict and utilization of family-friendly policies. In line with previous Western findings, women experienced higher level of work to family conflict (WFC) than men employees. In addition, women also reported higher family demands than men. These findings strengthened the traditional gender role ideology ascribed by majority of Malaysians and lend support to the gender role theory. Therefore, the organization could provide relevant training, such as, time and stress management. Supervisors could be trained to be more aware of work-family balance issues faced by their employees and assist them accordingly.
BACKGROUND: There is a steep increase in the consumer use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM), with many users unaware of the need to inform their health care providers. Various predictors including psychosocial factors such as beliefs and behavior have been accounted for preference toward CAM use, with varying results.
METHODS: This study investigates the belief and attitude regarding preference toward CAM use among the Malaysian population by using a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study.
RESULTS: A large majority of the 1,009 respondents admitted to taking at least one type of CAM (n=730, 72.3%). Only 20 (1.9%) respondents were found to have negative beliefs (total score <35), 4 (0.4%) respondents had neutral beliefs (total score =35), and 985 (97.6%) respondents had positive belief toward CAM (total score >36). A total of 507 (50.2%) respondents were categorized as having a negative CAM attitude, while 502 (49.8%) respondents were categorized as having a positive CAM attitude. It was demonstrated that there was a positive correlation between belief and attitude score (ρ=0.409, P<0.001). Therefore, the higher the belief in CAM, the more positive the attitude was toward CAM. Those who were using CAM showed a stronger belief (P=0.002), with a more positive attitude (P<0.001) toward it, than those who were not using CAM.
CONCLUSION: Identifying belief regarding preference toward CAM use among the public could potentially reveal those with a higher tendency to use CAM. This is important as not everyone feels the need to reveal the use of CAM to their health care providers, which could lead to serious repercussions such as interactions and adverse effects.
Waiting is a common phenomenon in the doctor's waiting room. The purpose of this audit is to assess patient waiting time and doctor consultation time in a primary healthcare clinic and to formulate strategies for improvement. This audit was conducted at a primary care clinic for 4 weeks using the universal sampling method. All patients who attended the clinic during this period was included in the study except for those who required more time to be seen such as those who were critically ill, aggressive or those who came for repeat medication or procedures only without needing to see the doctor. The time of arrival was captured using the queue management system (QMS) and then the patient was given a timing chit which had to be manually filled by the staff at every station. The waiting time for registration, pre-consultation, consultation, appointment, payment and pharmacy were recorded as well as consultation time. The data were entered into the statistical software SPSS version 17 for analysis. version 17. Results showed that more than half of the patients were registered within 15 minutes (53%) and the average total waiting time from registration to seeing a doctor was 41 minutes. Ninety-nine percentage of patients waited less than 30 minutes to get their medication. The average consultation time was 18.21 minutes. The problems identified in this audit were addressed and strategies formulated to improve the waiting and consultation time were carried out including increasing the number of staff at the registration counter, enforcing the staggered appointment system for follow-up patients and improving the queuing system for walk-in patients.