Aim. Validation of the Malay version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)
Methods. A validation study was done involving 52 mothers who were at 4-12 weeks post-delivery. The women completed the Malay versions of EPDS and the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). They were then assessed with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS). Psychiatric diagnoses were made based on ICD-10 criteria. The validity of EPDS was tested against this clinical diagnosis and the concurrent validity against the Malay version of 30-item GHQ and HDRS scores was also evaluated.
Results. The best cut-off score of the Malay version of EPDS was 11.5 with the sensitivity of 72.7% and specificity of 92.6 %.
Conclusion. The Malay version of EPDS is a valid and reliable screening tool for PND.
Postpartum depression is one of the major depressions experienced by women during three months after giving birth to their babies. The symptoms of this type of depression cannot be taken lightly as it affects not only the women but also the development of the babies, family harmony and functioning and can in fact harm themselves and other individuals in their surrounding. Thus, this research was conducted to identify the influence of parental stress towards postpartum depression. A total of 181 women participated in this study and they were from two groups namely married and unmarried women who just gave birth. Two instruments were used and they were the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale and the Parental Stress Index Short Form. Results obtained showed that parental stress and its dimensions were significantly correlated with postpartum depression. In addition, maternal stress and difficult child characteristics were significant predictors of postpartum depression. Findings also showed that there were significant differences of parental stress and its dimensions between married and unmarried women who just gave birth. These findings imply the importance of coping with parental stress to prevent women from experiencing postpartum depression.
Keywords Postpartum Depression · Parental Stress · Child Characteristics · Regression
The Heart of Borneo initiative has promoted the integration of protected areas and sustainably-managed forests across Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Recently, however, member states of the Heart of Borneo have begun pursuing ambitious unilateral infrastructure-development schemes to accelerate economic growth, jeopardizing the underlying goal of trans-boundary integrated conservation. Focusing on Sabah, Malaysia, we highlight conflicts between its Pan-Borneo Highway scheme and the regional integration of protected areas, unprotected intact forests, and conservation-priority forests. Road developments in southern Sabah in particular would drastically reduce protected-area integration across the northern Heart of Borneo region. Such developments would separate two major clusters of protected areas that account for one-quarter of all protected areas within the Heart of Borneo complex. Sabah has proposed forest corridors and highway underpasses as means of retaining ecological connectivity in this context. Connectivity modelling identified numerous overlooked areas for connectivity rehabilitation among intact forest patches following planned road development. While such 'linear-conservation planning' might theoretically retain up to 85% of intact-forest connectivity and integrate half of the conservation-priority forests across Sabah, in reality it is very unlikely to achieve meaningful ecological integration. Moreover, such measure would be exceedingly costly if properly implemented-apparently beyond the operating budget of relevant Malaysian authorities. Unless critical road segments are cancelled, planned infrastructure will fragment important conservation landscapes with little recourse for mitigation. This likelihood reinforces earlier calls for the legal recognition of the Heart of Borneo region for conservation planning as well as for enhanced tri-lateral coordination of both conservation and development.
Background: Patients' satisfaction is the key parameter to measure the quality of healthcare services. Value added-services (VAS) were introduced to improve the quality of medication deliveries and to reduce the waiting time at outpatient pharmacy.
Objective: This study aimed to compare the satisfaction levels of patients receiving VAS and traditional counter service (TCS) for prescription refills in Port Dickson Hospital.
Methods: A single-center, cross-sectional study was conducted in the outpatient pharmacy department of Port Dickson Hospital from 1 March to 30 June 2017. Systematic sampling method was utilized to recruit subjects into the study, except mail pharmacy in which universal sampling method was used. Data collection was done via telephone interviews for both groups.
Results: There was 104 and 105 in TCS and VAS group respectively. The response rate was 99.5%. Overall, a significant higher total mean satisfaction score in VAS group was observed as compared to TCS group (43.39 versus 40.49, p=0.002). The same finding was observed after confounding factors were controlled (VAS=44.66, 95% CI 43.07:46.24 versus TCS=39.88, 95% CI 38.29:41.46; p<0.001). VAS respondents reported more satisfaction than TCS respondents for both general and technical aspects. Among the VAS offered, mail pharmacy service respondents showed highest total mean satisfaction score, but no significant different was seen between groups (p=0.064).
Conclusion: VAS respondents were generally more satisfied than TCS respondents for prescription refills. A longitudinal study is necessary to examine the impact of other dimensions and other types of VAS on patients' satisfaction levels.
Study site: outpatient clinic, Hospital Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
Introduction: Malocclusion is one of the most common dental problems observed. Limited data is currently
available regarding the demographics of malocclusion observed locally.
Materials And Methods: This is a
retrospective study where 770 patients were recruited from May 2009 till December 2014. 560 orthodontic
study models that met the inclusion criteria were examined and the malocclusions were classified according
to the British Standard Institute (BSI) incisor classification. Demographic pattern and their relationship were
analysed by structural equation modelling using SPSS (version 23.0).
Results: From 560 study models
analysed, 72% were female. The age of the patients ranges from 7-12 years old (17.1%), 13-17 years old
(55.9%) and >18 years old (27.0%). Majority of the patients were Malay followed by Chinese (5.7%), Indian
(1.8%) and other races (1.8%) Treatments received were fixed appliances (FA) (60.0%), removable appliances
(RA) (12.5%), functional appliances (FnA) (1.1%), combination of RA and FA (16.1%), combination of FnA and
FA (2.1%) and consultation (8.2%). Types of malocclusions observed were Class I (25.7%), Class II/1(32.7%),
Class II/2 (7.5%) and Class III (34.1%). There was significant association (p
Immunization has been introduced for decades to eradicate fatal infectious diseases by inoculating attenuated, killed or toxoid of microorganisms such as bacteria and virus. The triggering action to the immune system would not harm the host; despite can boost the immune responses to any infection. However, several cases of the eradicated infectious disease have re-emerged due to the existence of vaccine hesitancy group. Vaccine hesitancy has been observed emerging worldwide due to rejection in receiving vaccine. The main obstacle in vaccination program was identified according to the misconception that they received from internet or any mass media without boundaries. Various actions from the government have met the needs to enforce and educate the public especially the hesitant group towards better disease prevention with vaccination. The strategy would cover any interaction activities or programs with the public in transferring the information about the vaccination and its benefit to the health of herd community.
Introduction: A survey in 2011 reported that the prevalence of diabetes in Malaysia is 20.8% (2.8 million people) and 88% have uncontrolled diabetes. Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is one of the common diabetes complications in Malaysia that leads to other devastated situation including infection, amputation and death. In Pahang, 95% of the patients have uncontrolled diabetes and 50% of them suffered from DFU. Self-wound management is an important element in reducing the risk of further complications of DFU. However, little is known on the patients' understanding of diabetes and their practice of self wound management. This study aimed to understand the knowledge, attitude and practice of self-wound management among patients with diabetic ulcer in Pahang.
Materials and method: A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Pahang involving 100 participants. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling from April 2017 until May 2017. Participants' knowledge, attitude and practice of self-wound management were measured using self-administered questionnaires. Additionally, the data on socio-demographic was gathered. The data was computed into SPSS and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: Out of 100 participants, 95% of them had good knowledge on diabetes and DFU, 84% had a positive attitude towards self-wound management and 56% perceived good practices of self-wound management. However, a chi-square test between knowledge on diabetes and DFU and practice of self-wound management found no significant interaction (p > 0.05). Meanwhile, there was a significant interaction between attitude and practice of self-wound management (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Good knowledge on diabetes and DFU do not determine the patients’ practice of self-wound management. However, positive attitude towards self-wound management would contribute to the practice and willingness of the patients to selfmanage their foot ulcer wound at home.
This study aims to examine the relationship between mentoring program, personality and mentee outcomes. One hundred respondents from different faculties in one of the universities in East Malaysia were involved in this study. Pearson Correlation was employed to determine the relationship between mentoring program and mentee outcomes, personality and mentee outcomes, mentoring program and psychological and emotional support. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between mentoring program and mentee outcomes. Multiple Regressions was used to assess whether personality act as a moderator between mentoring program and mentee outcomes. The findings indicated that personality moderates the relationship between mentoring program and mentee outcomes. The findings of this research are beneficial for mentoring program in universities in Malaysia, especially, in ensuring better mentoring outcomes. Implication of this research on organization and individuals was also discussed.
This report describes the detection of zoonotic Cryptosporidium muris, C. parvum subgenotype IIa and Giardia duodenalis genotype B in urban rodents in Malaysia. A rare occurrence of C. meleagridis was also reported suggesting a role of rodents in mechanical transmission of this pathogen. Utilization of DNA sequencing and subtyping analysis confirmed the presence of zoonotic C. parvum subtypes IIaA17G2R1 and IIaA16G3R1 for the first time in rodents.
Objectives: The Brief Ageing Perceptions Questionnaire (B-APQ) has five domains that explore views about own ageing. The aim of this study was to validate the B-APQ for use among older adults in Malaysia and to explore socio-demographic variations in ageing self-perceptions.Method: Older adults aged 50 years and above were randomly selected to complete a set of questionnaires. Cronbach's α was used to measure internal consistency, while corrected item-total correlations and correlation with DASS-21 and the CASP-19 scores were employed to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to confirm the factorial structure of the B-APQ. Difference in self-perceptions of ageing across socio-demographic variables was assessed.Results: Internal consistency for each of the domains was good. Item-total correlations within each domain were strong (>0.6) or very strong (>0.8). Convergent and discriminant validity were supported by significant correlations with DASS-21 depression and CASP-19 scores. CFA results indicated good model fit with the original B-APQ model. Presence of chronic illness also has a significant impact on B-APQ domain scores.Conclusion: The B-APQ is a valid and reliable instrument which can be used to assess self-perceptions of ageing among older Malaysian adults.
Baccaurea motleyana Müll. Arg. (rambai) is one of the underutilized fruit natives to Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaya Peninsula and it is mostly cultivated in Java island (Lim, 2012) [1]. The edible part of fruits is white and reddish arillodes in which having sweet to acid-sweet tastes. However, nucleotide as well as transcriptome information of this species is still scarce, no information has been deposited in GenBank. In this data article, we performed for the first time of de novo assembly of transcriptome using paired-end Illumina technology. The assembled contigs were constructed using Trinity and after filtering and clustering, produced 37,077 contigs. The contig ranged 201-4972 bp and N50 has 696 bp. The contig was annotated with several database such as SwissProt, TrEMBL, nr and nt NCBI databases. The raw reads were deposited in DDBJ with DRA numbers, DRA007358. The assembled contigs of transcriptome are deposited in the DDBJ TSA with accession number, IADP01000001-IADP01037077 and also can be accessed at http://rujakbase.id.
In 1994, the Government of Malaysia received 61.518 million yen to commence Kuala Lumpur
International Airport (KLIA) project. The airport is located in the district of Sepang, Selangor, which
was originally oil palm plantations and small villages. The construction project completed and began in
used in the 1998. This paper is to evaluate the impact of Japan's ODA for Malaysia, particularly yen
loan to socioeconomic. In term of socioeconomic impact, many new cities were established such as
Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi, Bandar Baru Nilai, Banting, Bandar Enstek and Cyber Jaya. Similarly, new
housing, schools, shopping malls and other facilities such as the Sepang International Circuit and
Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) were built. New roads connecting to the airport also completed
the development of these places. In terms of employment, previously many who depended on agriculture,
now turned to business, hospitality, services, transportation and others. In fact the huge investment
significantly affected the surrounding population, particularly the creation of modern towns, businesses
and educational centers which gave rise to various types of employment.
Objective: SLE is an autoimmune disease which affects multiple organ system. Clinical and immunological expression of the disease have been widely studied and variations occur in different ethnic groups. Here in this study, we have analyzed the clinical manifestations and immunological features of Malaysian patients with Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and compared them with SLE population from some of the Asian countries. Study design: A total of 134 Malaysian patients attending the SLE Clinic of The National University Hospital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur and who satisfy the revised ACR (American College of Rheumatology) criteria for the classification of SLE were enrolled into the study. Data on the demography, clinical and immunological features were obtained from medical records. Materials and Methods: The female to male ratio in the study cohort was 10:1 and consisted of the Malay, Chinese and Indian races. Past clinical and immunological features were entered into a prepared questionnaire. At study entry patients were seen by a rheumatologist for assessment of present clinical condition and blood obtained for immunological tests (Antinuclear, antids DNA, antiSm, antiU1RNP, antiSSA(Ro), antiSSB(La), anticardiolipin (IgG and IgM) antibodies and complements C3 and C4). Chi-square, Fisher's exact test and Mann Whitney U Test were used to analyze data. Results: Clinical features expressed at disease presentation in order of frequency was mucocutaneous (72%), followed by musculoskeletal (58%) and renal involvement (45%) which was also similar during the course of the disease (90%, 72% and 64% respectively). A high prevalence of antiSSB (La) antibodies was found (48%). Conclusion: This study provides the literature on the clinical and immunological features of Malaysian SLE patients and further shows the different spectrum of disease profile when compared to other ethnic groups. The roles of racial and genetic factors are suggested.
Aim: This study was a qualitative study that investigated the exercise prescription method in knee osteoarthritis patients in Malaysia. It purposed to find out the most common and effective method used by physiotherapist in prescribing exercises for knee osteoarthritis patients in Malaysia.
Method: This study used a self-administered survey questionnaire. The subjects recruited for this study were diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis, age range of between 50 to 80 years old.The methods of delivery were divided into three categories, which include only verbal instructions, verbal instruction together with demonstration and lastly a combination of all three methods including verbal instruction, demonstration and handouts with diagrams.
Results: The results showed that 52% received their exercise prescription with verbal instruction and together with demonstration, about 43% of them received all three types of methods which included the verbal instruction, demonstration and take home handouts and 5% of them only received verbal instruction. Out of 5% who received verbal instruction alone, only 1% understood the exercises and the remaining 4% did not and 45% out of 52% who received verbal and demonstration method understood the exercises and the remaining 7% did not. 5% who received only verbal instruction did not seem to continue the exercises at home. 52% received verbal instruction together with demonstration, with about 44% of them having continued their exercises but the remaining 8% did not. 43% who received all three methods reported to continue.
Conclusion: The best method of delivering exercises to knee osteoarthritis patients was proven to be the method with a combination of verbal instruction, demonstration together with a take home handout. This method showed very positive outcome and should be implemented and emphasized more in both the government and private sectors of physiotherapy departments.
Aims: To assess the association between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use and upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract-related hospitalizations and to evaluate inpatient healthcare resource utilization associated with these complications in Malaysia.
Methods: A retrospective case control study was performed using medical records of patients admitted to two Malaysian hospitals during 1999 and 2000. Cases were identified based on mode of presentation at hospital admission. One control was identified for each case, matched by age, sex and admission date. NSAID exposure was determined by drug use during one year prior to admission. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between NSAID use and upper GI complications, adjusting for predictors.
Results: The 273 cases were significantly more likely to have used NSAIDs in the year prior to hospitalization than controls (27.8% vs. 6.2% of patients; P < 0.0001). Conditional logistic regression analysis adjusting for other predictors showed that the odds of being hospitalized for upper GI tract complications were 4.1 times higher among NSAID users than non-users (95% CI = 1.88-9.12). Other risk factors for GI-related hospitalizations were a history of upper GI tract complications (OR = 5.8, 95% CI = 1.28-26.53), use of gastroprotective agents (OR = 5.3, 95% CI = 1.67-16.79), and use of antacids (OR = 5.0, 95% CI = 2.10-11.91) in the previous year.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that NSAID exposure was significantly higher among patients hospitalized for GI-related complications than for other reasons, indicating that NSAID use is an independent risk factor for upper GI tract complications in this Malaysian sample.