DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on Malaysian adults with hearing loss to determine the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on hearing aid management, communication difficulties, psychosocial challenges, and access to audiological services.
STUDY SAMPLE: One hundred forty-six individuals aged 18 years old and above with hearing loss were recruited from hearing health care centers to participate in the survey.
RESULTS: Many of the participants (54.2%) reported significant difficulties communicating with people wearing face masks. For hearing aid management, repairing (36.3%) and fine-tuning devices (30.2%) were considered more challenging than obtaining a battery (21.3%). The COVID-19 pandemic had a serious psychosocial impact on a small portion of the individuals surveyed. Remote services were rarely offered by the audiologists, and most participants preferred in-person treatment. However, the majority perceived that creating awareness and training on telehealth was important.
CONCLUSIONS: Effective management for people with hearing loss needs to consider the challenges faced by them, as the world prepares to live with the coronavirus. Clinical protocols should consider providing a service that is helpful for the clients as well as safe and sustainable in future pandemics.
Methods: Five key themes were reviewed using existing literature (role of leadership; education, training, and continuing professional development; technology; accreditation, management, and quality standards; and reimbursement systems). A tiered system is described, building on existing proposals. The economic analysis draws on the very limited published studies, combined with expert opinion.
Results: Countries have underinvested in pathology services, with detrimental effects on health care. The equipment needs for a tier 1 laboratory in a primary health facility are modest ($2-$5,000), compared with $150,000 to $200,000 in a district hospital, and higher in a referral hospital (depending on tests undertaken). Access to a national (or regional) specialized laboratory undertaking disease surveillance and registry is important. Recurrent costs of appropriate laboratories in district and referral hospitals are around 6% of the hospital budget in midsized hospitals and likely decline in the largest hospitals. Primary health facilities rely largely on single-use tests.
Conclusions: Pathology is an essential component of good universal health care.
METHODS: Three areas of priority were identified as follows: staff safety, patient movement, and possible clinical scenarios based on simulation principles in health care education. Staff was rostered and rotated through stations for rapid-cycle deliberate practice to learn donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR). For difficult airway management, Peyton's 4 steps for skills training and Harden's Three Circle model formed the structure in teaching the core skills. Several clinical scenarios used system probing to elicit inadequacies followed by formal debriefing to facilitate reflection. Finally, evaluation was both immediate and delayed with an online survey after 1 month to examine 4 levels of reaction, learning, behavior, and impact based on the Kirkpatrick Model. Frequency and thematic analysis were then conducted on the quantitative and qualitative data, respectively.
RESULTS: A total of 15 of 16 (93%) consultants, 16 (100%) specialists, and 81 (100%) medical officers in the department completed training within 2 consecutive weeks. Reaction and part of the learning were relayed immediately to trainers during training. In total, 42 (39%) trained staff responded to the survey. All were satisfied and agreed on the relevance of training. A total of 41 respondents (98%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 87-99) answered 16 of 20 questions correctly on identifying aerosol-generating procedures (AGP), indications for PPE, planning and preparation for airway management to achieve adequate learning. About 43% (95% CI, 27-59) and 52% (95% CI, 36-68) recalled donning and doffing steps correctly. A total of 92 responses from 33 respondents were analyzed in the thematic analysis. All respondents reported at least 1 behavioral change in intended outcomes for hand hygiene practice (20%), appropriate use of PPE (27%), and airway management (10%). The emerging outcomes were vigilance, physical distancing, planning, and team communication. Finally, the impact of training led to the establishment of institutional guidelines followed by all personnel.
CONCLUSIONS: Simulation-based training was a useful preparation tool for small institutions with limited time, resources, and manpower in developing nations. These recommendations represent the training experience to address issues of "when" and "how" to initiate urgent "medical education" during an outbreak.
AIM: To examine the epidemiological trends of infective endocarditis in a developing nation.
METHODS: Single-centre, retrospective study of patients admitted with IE to a tertiary hospital in Malaysia over a 12-year period.
RESULTS: The analysis included 182 patients (n = 153 Duke's definite IE, n = 29 possible IE). The mean age was 51 years. Rheumatic heart disease was present in 42%, while 7.6% were immunocompromised. IE affected native valves in 171 (94%) cases. Health-care associated IE (HCAIE) was recorded in 68 (37.4%). IE admission rates increased from 25/100,000 admissions (2012) to 59/100,000 admissions (2017). At least one major complication on admission was detected in 59 (32.4%) patients. Left-sided IE was more common than right-sided IE [n = 159 (87.4%) vs. n = 18 (9.9%)]. Pathogens identified by blood culture were staphylococcus group [n = 58 (40.8%)], streptococcus group [n = 51 (35.9%)] and Enterococcus species [n = 13 (9.2%)]. staphylococcus infection was highest in the HCAIE group. In-hospital death occurred in 65 (35.7%) patients. In-hospital surgery was performed for 36 (19.8%) patients. At least one complication was documented in 163 (85.7%).
CONCLUSION: Staphylococcus is the new etiologic champion, reflecting the transition of the healthcare system. Streptococcus is still an important culprit organism. The incidence rate of IE appears to be increasing. The rate of patients with underlying rheumatic heart disease is still high.
METHODS: This research comprises a longitudinal population-based study that measured the prevalence and 6-month stability of EBD in children aged seven to eight years and thirteen to fourteen years attending public schools in Malaysia based on parents, teachers and children's (aged 13 to 14 years) report of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at baseline and 6 months later.
FINDINGS: The prevalence of EBD in Malaysian school children was 9.3% for teacher-report, 8.5% for parent-report and 3.9% for child-report. There was no significance difference in the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems over six-months for all informants, except for teacher-report Emotional and Conduct problems scores which increased significantly and child-report Total Difficulties and Emotional problems scores which decreased significantly (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the prevalence of EBD among Malaysian children is almost similar to the Western countries and stable over a 6-month period. These findings suggest the need for policy makers in near-developed countries to provide services aimed at preventing EBD and treating children identified as having such problems.
AIMS: (1) To investigate the association between birth weight and anthropometric measurements during adulthood; (2) to study the genetic and environmental influences on body measures including birth weight, weight and height among twins; and (3) to assess the variation in heritability versus environment among two cohorts of twins who lived in different geographical areas.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Twins were collected from two twin registers. Data on birth weight, adult weight and height in 430 MZ and 170 DZ twins living in two geographically distinct parts of the world were collected. A genetic analysis was performed using MX software.
RESULTS: Birth weight was associated with weight, height and BMI. Both MZ and DZ twins with low birth weight had shorter height during their adult life (p = 0.001), but only MZ twins with lower birth weight were lighter at adulthood (p = 0.001). Intra-pair differences in birth weight were not associated with differences in adult height (p = 0.366) or weight (p = 0.796). Additive genetic effects accounted for 53% of the variance in weight, 43% in height and 55% in birth weight. The remaining variance was attributed to unique environmental effects (15% for weight, 13% for height and 45% for birth weight and only 16% for BMI). Variability was found to be different in the two cohorts. The best fitting model for birth weight and BMI was additive genetic and non-shared environment and for weight and height was additive genetic, non-shared environment (plus common Environment).
CONCLUSIONS: Data suggests that the association between weight at birth and anthropometric measures in later life is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Living in different environments can potentially relate to variation found in the environment.
Setting and Design: Retrospective observational cohort study in the State of Johor, Malaysia.
Subjects and Methods: All infants born between January 2006 and December 2015 with a diagnosis of CCHD, defined as infants with duct-dependent lesions or cyanotic heart disease who may die without early intervention. The late diagnosis was defined as a diagnosis of CCHD after 3 days of age.
Results: Congenital heart disease was diagnosed in 3557 of 531,904 live-born infants and were critical in 668 (18.7%). Of 668, 347 (52%) had duct-dependent pulmonary circulation. The birth prevalence of CCHD was 1.26 (95% confidence interval: 1.16-1.35) per 1000 live births, with no significant increase over time. The median age of diagnosis was 4 days (Q1 1, Q3 26), with 61 (9.1%) detected prenatally, and 342 (51.2%) detected late. The highest rate of late diagnosis was observed in coarctation of the aorta with a rate of 74%. Trend analysis shows a statistically significant reduction of late diagnosis and a significant increase in prenatal detection. However, Cox regression analysis shows the timing of diagnosis does not affect the outcome of CCHD.
Conclusions: Due to limited resources in the MIC, the late diagnosis of CCHD is high but does not affect the outcome. Nevertheless, the timing of diagnosis has improved over time.