METHODS: A cross-sectional anonymous web-based survey was conducted between 10th September 2020 and 30th November 2020. The survey was open to Malaysian aged 18 years and older via various social media platforms. The questionnaire consists of sociodemographic, experience of utilising healthcare facilities, and views on clinic appointment structure.
RESULTS: A total of 1,144 complete responses were received. The mean age was 41.4 ± 12.4 years and more than half of the respondents had a preference for public healthcare. Among them, 77.1% reported to have a clinical appointment scheduled in the past. Less than a quarter experienced off-office hour appointments, mostly given by private healthcare. 70.2% answered they would arrive earlier if they were given a specific appointment slot at a public healthcare facility, as parking availability was the utmost concern. Majority hold positive views for after office hour clinical appointments, with 68.9% and 63.2% agreed for weekend and weekday evening appointment, respectively. The top reason of agreement was working commitment during office hours, while family commitment and personal resting time were the main reasons for disagreeing with off-office hour appointments.
CONCLUSION: We found that majority of our respondents chose to come early instead of arriving on time which disrupts the staggered appointment system and causes over crowdedness. Our findings also show that the majority of our respondents accept off-office hour appointments. This positive response suggests that off-office hour appointments may have a high uptake amongst the public and thus be a possible solution to distribute the patient load. Therefore, this information may help policy makers to initiate future plans to resolve congestions within public health care facilities which in turn eases physical distancing during the pandemic.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted across four health clinics from February 2022 to May 2022. As part of the study, self-administered questionnaires were completed to determine symptoms related to SBS. An indoor air quality (IAQ) assessment was conducted four times daily for fifteen minutes at five areas in each clinic (laboratory, lobby, emergency room, pharmacy, and examination room).
RESULT: Most of the areas illustrated poor air movement (<0.15 m/s), except for the laboratory. The total bacterial count (TBC) was above the standard limit in both the lobby and emergency room (>500 CFU/m3). The prevalence of SBS was 24.84% (77) among the healthcare workers at the health clinics. A significant association with SBS was noted for those working in the examination room (COR = 2.86; 95% CI = 1.31; 6.27) and those experiencing high temperature sometimes (COR = 0.25; 95% CI = 0.11; 0.55), varying temperature sometimes (COR = 0.31; 95% CI = 0.003), stuffy air sometimes (COR = 0.17; 95% CI = 0.005; 0.64), dry air sometimes (COR = 0.20; 95% CI = 0.007; 0.64), and dust sometimes (COR = 0.25; 95% CI = 0.11; 0.60) and everyday (COR = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.14; 0.81). Only healthcare workers in the examination room (AOR = 3.17; 95% CI = 1.35; 7.41) were found to have a significant risk of SBS when controlling for other variables.
CONCLUSION: SBS is prevalent among healthcare workers at health clinics.
METHODS: We used data from The National Medical Care Survey (NMCS), a national cross-sectional survey of patients' visits to primary care clinics in Malaysia. A weighted total of 22,832 encounters of patients aged ≥65 years were analysed. Polypharmacy was defined as concomitant use of five medications and above. Multilevel logistic regression was performed to examine the association of polypharmacy with patient, prescriber and practice characteristics.
RESULTS: A total of 20.3% of the older primary care attenders experienced polypharmacy (26.7%% in public and 11.0% in private practice). The adjusted odds ratio (OR) of polypharmacy were 6.37 times greater in public practices. Polypharmacy was associated with patients of female gender (OR 1.49), primary education level (OR 1.61) and multimorbidity (OR 14.21). The variation in rate of polypharmacy was mainly found at prescriber level.
CONCLUSION: Polypharmacy is common among older persons visiting primary care practices. Given the possible adverse outcomes, interventions to reduce the burden of polypharmacy are best to be directed at individual prescribers.