Programmes that increase awareness of childhood obesity are vital to reducing the
number of obese adults and adults with cardiovascular diseases. However, the
effectiveness of these programmes must be evaluated to optimise resources for childhood
obesity awareness programmes. The present study was conducted to assess the
intermediate cost-effectiveness and provide a cost analysis of childhood obesity health
promotion programmes. This quasi-experimental study compared the intermediate
outcomes of the Sahabat Sihat and Be Best programmes over a six-month period. Data
regarding health-related quality of life (EQ-5D and EQ-VAS), the Knowledge, Attitude and
Practice questionnaire, and biomedical data were obtained from booklets prepared by
MySihat for childhood obesity-related health promotion programmes. Data regarding cost
was obtained from the expenditure records of the respective health promotion
programmes. The intergroup and intragroup comparisons between the EQ-5D and
EQ-VAS results, the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice scores, and the biomedical data
were explored using the Mann-Whitney and Friedman tests. Descriptive statistics were
utilised in the analysis of the cost results. Be Best and Sahabat Sihat were successful in
helping to prevent overweight respondents from becoming obese. The Attitude score was
higher among the Sahabat Sihat cohort, but the Practice score was higher among the Be
Best cohort. Be Best had a lower mean cost per participant and was more cost-effective
than Sahabat Sihat.
Pharmacists play an important role in healthcare delivery. Over the years, their role has shifted from product-oriented to patient-oriented. This study aimed to assess the perceptions of the public towards the role of pharmacists and the willingness of the public to pay for pharmacist-provided dispensing services in Sabah. This was a questionnairebased, cross-sectional study conducted from September 2014 to June 2015 in three major cities in Sabah, namely, Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau. The respondents were conveniently selected and interviewed based on a questionnaire to assess their perceptions of the role of pharmacists. A contingent valuation interview was then conducted to assess the respondents’ willingness to pay. A total of 647 respondents were interviewed. Of the respondents, 61.4% agreed that pharmacists knew more about their medications and side effects and how to use the medications than their doctors. However, more than half of the respondents (54.4%) perceived that the pharmacists’ role was only to supply medications and 66.6% of the respondents perceived that the pharmacist’s role was to follow doctors’ directions. Of the respondents, 89.0% appreciated and adhered to the counselling points provided by their pharmacists; 85.0% of the respondents hoped that pharmacists could play a greater role in healthcare in the future. Forty percent of the respondents agreed that community pharmacists were simply business people who sold products in their pharmacies. Finally, 55.3% of the respondents were willing to pay for pharmacist-provided dispensing services. The median (interquartile ranges [IQR]) amount that they were willing to pay was RM5.00 (IQR RM5.00). Respondents in this study showed variations in their views of the pharmacy profession. Nevertheless, more than half of the respondents valued pharmacist-provided dispensing services and were willing to pay RM5.00 for the services. To improve pharmacy practice, efforts should be undertaken to address the respondents’ misunderstandings about the pharmacy profession and to promote the roles of pharmacists to the general public.
Urolithiasis considered as a disease condition that is neglected in terms of research because of its perceived low prevalence and possibly the seemingly good prognosis associated with it. However, in recent years, the prevalence of urolithiasis is increasing in both developed and developing countries and the disease is associated with significant burden and healthcare cost from patients’ caregivers, and society’s perspective. All healthcare providers (including pharmacists) have an important role to play in the management of this disease and it deserves more attention in terms of clinical practice and research. This review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of patient satisfaction, from the aspect of defining satisfaction of patients, perceptions toward disease management, and a review of literature of satisfaction of patients with kidney stones and its magnitude in healthcare provided. The medical literature has many articles about urolithiasis management options. However, there have been no sufficient published studies discussing patient-reported outcomes of kidney stone management to evaluate their satisfaction, preferences, treatment expectations, and quality of life. Future studies are needed to spot the light on kidney stones patients’ preferences and reported outcomes.
Institutions of higher learning are working hard to provide effective, high quality educational programs. Meanwhile, potential students are also looking at “quality” as a metric to help make their decisions about which college to join. Mechanisms to evaluate the quality of higher education offered in universities are already available. This study aimed to determine students’ attitudes and opinions regarding the pharmacy curriculum at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). A survey instrument was administered to all final year bachelor of pharmacy (BPharm) students. Forty students (93%) completed and returned the survey. The majority of students (75%) expressed their satisfaction regarding the curriculum in general. Most students (74%) were also satisfied with the courses offered by the department of pharmacy practice. However, students were not satisfied with certain issues such as overlapping of some pharmacy practice courses, and the inclusion of the Malaysian language course in the BPharm curriculum.
We attempted to investigate possible hepatoprotective effect of Eurycoma longifolia jack (ELJ) using carbon tetrachloride-induced (CC14) acute hepatotoxicity model in rats. Hepatotoxicity was induced by oral administration of 4.0mg/kg of CCI4 in corn oil (1:1) once to one experimental group of 5 rats and, in three other similar groups, challenged doses (300, 750 and 1500 mg/kg respectively) of ELJ were given one day before and one hour after 4.0 mg/kg CC14 and then once daily for three consecutive days. Three other groups of 5 rats each serving as controls were administered with distilled water, corn oil and ELJ (750mg/kg) only respectively. Rats were sacrificed on day three (corn oil & CC14 treated groups) and on day 4 (Distilled water, ELJ alone and CC14 with graded doses of ELJ treated groups) and samples of blood and liver tissue were taken for biochemical (serum) and histopathological examinations to assess hepatoprotection of ELJ against CC14-induced hepatotoxicity. In the low (300mg/kg) and medium (750 mg/kg) dose ELJ treated groups, CCI4 induced moderate inflammation, fatty acid change and necrosis of hepatocytes while in the high (1500mg/kg) dose ELJ, CC14 induced severe inflammation, fatty acid change and necrosis of hepatocytes. Biochemical measurements of ALT and ALP shows a moderate and insignificant reduction of serum levels in the low dose ELJ group but a more significant reduction in the medium and high dose ELJ groups when compared with the CC14 only group. The increase in serum total bilirubin caused by CC14 was non-significantly reduced by all the doses of ELJ. Animals treated with CC14 alone and in groups treated with both CC14 and graded doses of ELJ had a reduction in body weight, food and water intake but in ELJ (750mg/kg) only treated group, no such reduction in body weight, food and water intake was observed. This observation suggest that ELJ administered alone did not cause any toxic effect to the liver but in combination with CCI4, appeared to synergize the CC14-induced hepatotoxicity which increases as the dose of ELJ is increased. The anorexic, hypodypsic and reduced body weight evident in the CC14 alone and in ELJ plus CC14 treated groups but not in animals treated with ELJ alone, suggests that ELJ alone does not induce anorexia, hypodypsia or loss of weight. In conclusion, the results of our study suggest that ELJ is not hepatotoxic when given alone and appeared to have some degree of protective effects in rats against CC14-induced hepatotoxicity.