STUDY DESIGN: This is a cross sectional study involving primigravida in their third trimester of pregnancy, who attended the Patient Assessment Centre of a tertiary referral hospital in Klang Valley from July 2012 to June 2013. The participants were chosen randomly using convenience sampling. A face-to-face interview and a review of their antenatal record were done by trained interviewers. Data on sociodemographic and risk factors were obtained followed by the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Short Form (ICIQ-SF). The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science version 20.0.

RESULTS: A total of 306 women were involved. The prevalence of urinary incontinence during third trimester was 34.3% (95%CI: 29.0, 39.7). Stress incontinence (64.8%) is the commonest followed by mixed incontinence (24.8%) and urge incontinence (6.7%). Childhood enuresis (p=0.003) and previous history of urinary incontinence (p<0.001) were significantly associated with urinary incontinence. More than 50 percent of women with urinary incontinence in the third trimester felt that it did not affect their daily activities at all. Only 10% of women felt greatly affected by this problem.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to understand the local prevalence and factors associated with returning to work in Malaysia after a cardiac event.

METHODS: A cross sectional design was used. All patients attending the cardiac rehabilitation program after major cardiac event during an 11-months period (2011-2012) were included. Data relating to socio-demographic, work-related, risk factors and acute myocardial infarction were collected. The SF-36 questionnaire was used to assess quality of life. Regression analysis was used to determine the predicting factors to return to work.

RESULTS: A total of 398 files were screened, 112 respondents agreed to participate giving a response rate of 47.3%. The prevalence of returned to work (RTW) was 66.1% [95% CI: 57.2-75.0]. Factors associated with work resumption were age (Adj. OR: 0.92 (95% CI: 0.84-0.99), diabetes mellitus (Adj. OR: 3.70, 95% CI: 1.35-10.12), Mental Component Summary (MCS) score (Adj. OR: 1.05 (95% CI: 1.01-1.09) and baseline angiography findings. Patients with single vessel and two vessel disease were 8.9 times and 3.78 times more likely to return to work compared to those with 3 vessels (Adj. OR: 8.90 (95% CI: 2.29-34.64) and Adj. OR: 3.78, (95% CI: 1.12, 12.74).

METHODS: This was a cross-sectional validation study among 159 T2DM patients attending a public primary care clinic in Selangor. The DMOQ English version underwent adaptation, translation, face validation and field testing to produce the Malay version. Psychometric analysis was performed using Exploratory Factor Analysis, internal consistency and testretest reliability.

RESULTS: The DMOQ domains were conceptually equivalent between English and Malay language. A total of 13 items and two domains were removed during the validation process (three items during the content validation, three items due to poor factor loadings, five items as they loaded onto two domains which were not interpretable, one item as it did not fit conceptually into the factor it loaded onto and one openended question as it did not fit into the retained domains). Therefore, the final DMOQ Malay version consisted of 21- items within five domains. The Cronbach alpha was 0.714 and the intraclass-correlation coefficient was 0.868.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The communities were selected from rural and urban populations in four peninsular states (Selangor, Kelantan, Perak, and Johor). Following a multistage sampling approach, communities in each stratum were selected according to probability proportional to the size and identified based on national census data by the community and administrative registers. Households were randomly selected. Eligible individuals were those aged between 35 and 70 years old, self-reported or identified as hypertensive at screening. Informed consent was taken. A survey using validated questionnaires was conducted.

RESULTS: The total number of respondents was 579. The mean age was 59.0 (95%: 58.4, 59.7) and more were women (71.5%) than men (28.5%). Regarding respondents selfreported level of hypertension knowledge, 2.9% reported having no knowledge at all, 80.1% had little knowledge, and 17.9% were very familiar. Among all respondents, 56.2% (95% CI: 50.7, 61.6) correctly answered at least four out of five objective knowledge questions.Almost all (91.5%) were aware that hypertension could cause a stroke. However, one-fifth believed it could cause cancer. Almost threequarters said that people with high blood pressure generally felt well (72.1%) and recognized that they should not stop taking their medication (70.7%). Most of the respondents knew that people should take their medication even if they feel well (73.6%). Although more than half (66.0%) of the respondents rated their health as poor. Interestingly, most did not perceive themselves as having a long-term illness (95.0%).