Ventilated patients who require intensive care unit (ICU) treatment may encounter unpleasant experiences. These experiences may include factual incidents and delusional memories of ICU such as dreams, hallucinations and frightening experiences. A cross sectional study using “Intensive Care Experience Questionnaire” consisted of four domains: awareness of surrounding, frightening experiences, recall of experience and satisfaction with nursing care. Forty five participants who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were recruited in this study. This study was conducted in ICU of HUKM from January to March 2006. Results showed that 20 respondents (44%) were aware of their surrounding and 31 respondents (69%) reported frightening experiences. Majority of respondents (43 respondents, 96%) reported satisfaction with the delivery of nursing care. There was positive correlation between awareness of surrounding and their abilities to recall their experiences (p
Quality nursing care has a great impact on patient satisfaction. Quality nursing care is perceived by the post cardiac surgery patient, as the degree of physical, emotional and spiritual needs that have to be fulfilled while hospitalisation. The objective of this study was to identify factors in quality nursing care that determine post cardiac patient satisfaction. This single cross-sectional descriptive study using ‘NURSQUAL’ instrument consisted of four elements; technical competence, information giving, assurance and empathy to measure patient satisfaction with quality nursing care. It consisted of four research questions with 33 items to measure the four elements. Between January to March 2005, 52 post cardiac surgery patients from Institute Jantung Negara (IJN), who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were recruited for this study. There was a significant difference between technical competence, information giving, assurance and empathy with patient satisfaction with p value < 0.05. The element of assurance made the strongest statistically significant unique contribution to the prediction of patient satisfaction with a p value < 0.05.
Placenta praevia is a known obstetric condition that causes complications to mother and fetus. This study was done to evaluate the knowledge of placenta praevia amongst the obstetric patients. A cross sectional study was carried out in Hospital Ipoh, Perak among 323 antenatal and postnatal patients. Socio-demographic parameters (ie age, race, parity, occupation, educational level) and history of placenta praevia were studied in relation to level of knowledge and attitude towards placenta praevia. Twenty (6.2%) from 323 women had current or past history of placenta praevia. Three had history of placenta praevia while 17 had current placenta praevia with prevalence of 5.3%. The mean score of knowledge achieved by patients was 11.8 which indicated overall poor knowledge. Occupation, level of education and history of placenta praevia were found to have a relationship with level of knowledge regarding placenta praevia in all obstetric patients. There was a significant relationship between attitude of patients with current and history of placenta praevia to level of knowledge regarding placenta praevia. (p=0.037,
The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of dysmenorrhoea, its associated factors and its effects on school activities among adolescent girls in a secondary school in a rural district of Selangor, Malaysia. This is a cross-sectional study conducted in a public secondary school. A stratified random sampling of 300 female students (12 to 17 years old) from Form one to Form five classes were selected. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of 20-items was used to collect sociodemographic and menstrual data. Pain intensity for dysmenorrhoea was measured by numerical rating scale. The prevalence of dysmenorrhoea was 62.3%. It was significantly higher in the middle adolescence (15 to 17 years old) age group (p=0.003), girls with regular menstrual cycle (p=0.007) and a positive family history (p
Occupational stress is one of the major health hazards among blue and white-collar workers. However there is no data on occupational stress among white-collar workers in Iran. Aim of this study was to investigate occupational stress among white collar employees in Esfahan Steel Company organization (ESCO), Iran. A cross-sectional survey was conducted through face to face interview using validated standardized questionnaire on occupational stress among 200 white-collar workers from ESCO who agreed to participate in the study, the response rate of participation was 100%. The logistic regression test was used to determine significant associated factors of occupational stress among the study sample.. It is found that among the six items measuring source of stress, the highest source of stress related to economic problem, 117 (59.7%). The statistical analysis showed sources of stress such as task type (p=0.0001), economic problem (p=0.0001), work environment (p=0.0001) and children problem (p=0.05) were significantly associated with having stress among the workers. We found that around half of the white collar workers were under stress at ESCO. Main sources of the occupational stress of white colour workers related to their work environment, economic problem; task type, and related their children.
The trend of using nonprescription substances for weight-loss management is common. There are several factors associated with the use of nonprescription substances. This study aimed to determine prevalence and factors associated with the use of nonprescription substances for weight-loss management among university students. A cross sectional study was conducted from August until October 2013 among 358 postgraduate students aged 22 - 45 years in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). A validated self-administered questionnaire was distributed by multistage sampling to the students. The prevalence of using nonprescription substances among university students was 27.9% (n=100). There were significant association between use of nonprescription substances with age (t=2.41, p=0.017), peer influence (t=7.06, p
Introduction: Smoking is prevalent among Muslims in this country despite public knowledge regarding smoking as haram (unlawful). This may be due to ignorance of the consensus of the ' mufti ' on the ' fatwa ' on smoking or a result of poor education and understanding of health-related risks of smoking.
Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey was carried out among the public who attended the IIUM Faculty of Medicine open day in Kuantan, Pahang on June 12th, 2004. Knowledge of smoking-related illnesses and the religious ' fatwa '(edict) on smoking was assessed.
Results: Seventy four muslims participated in the survey. 46(63%) were smokers (including ex-smokers) and 28(37%) were non–smokers. There was no statistically significant difference between the knowledge of smoking-related illnesses and their knowledge of the religious edict which regards smoking as haram between smokers and non-smokers. Only 6.7% of smokers perceive smoking as haram compared to 48% of non-smokers (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The conviction that smoking is haram among smokers is still poor among smokers. This could be one of the main reasons contributing to the high prevalence of smoking in our society. There was no difference between smokers and non-smokers concerning their knowledge on the religious edict on smoking and the health-related hazards of smoking.
The study aims to evaluate students’ perceptions towards e-Learning Management System (e-LMS) in pharmacy education. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among all undergraduates enrolled at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. A pre-validated questionnaire consisting of two domains (demographic characteristics and students’ perception regarding the use of e-LMS) was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographic characteristics of the study respondents. Chi Square test was used to measure association between the study variables. All analysis was performed by using Predictive Analytical Software (PASW) v. 18. A total of 315 students completed the survey questionnaire with a response rate of 57.6%. Majority of the students (61.0%) accessed e-LMS to acquire lecture notes for their studies, followed by 53.3% have used e-LMS for the preparation of the assignments. Seventy eight percent of the respondents agreed that e-LMS is very useful and felt that e-LMS is making their studies easier. However, 50% of students claimed that poor network connection at the campus is a major barrier in accessing e-LMS. Moreover, 48% of the respondents disagreed that e-LMS should be taken into account as an assessment criterion for students’ grading. Students are found to be frequently engaged in using e-LMS and believed that online based learning is
enhancing their academic performances. Nevertheless, students still prefer hybrid teaching methodologies than choosing traditional system or e-learning as an alone entity.
Prevalence of visual impairment among students is increasing in trends especially in rural area. A cross sectional study was conducted among secondary school students in Taman PKNS Beranang, Selangor in March 2008 with the objective of determining the prevalence of visual acuity impairment and its influencing factors. A total of 77 secondary school students were interviewed using guided questionnaire. The prevalence of visual acuity impairment among the respondents was 25.0% and study found that being female and have been watching television at a distance of less than two meters were significantly associated with visual acuity impairment. In conclusion, the problem occurred maybe due to the students sit nearer to the television (
A cross-sectional study was conducted in two hospitals in Hargeisa city to determine the job and organizational stress among nurses and doctors in ICU and its influencing factors. A universal sampling method was carried out and one hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed among nurses and doctors working in intensive care units of two hospitals on different shift duties; morning, afternoon, night and rotation shifts. The response rate was 83.3%. Regression analysis showed that approximately 88% (adjusted R square = 0.889) of the variation in stress mean score was explained by the background variables. Experience, role overload, physical environment and marital status were significant predictors.
The study aimed to explore the perceptions towards health promotion activities among population of Penang Island,
Malaysia. The study was designed as a questionnaire based cross sectional analysis. General public from the district of
Jelutong, located in the state of Penang, Malaysia was conveniently approached for the study. Descriptive statistics
were used to ascertain demographic characteristics where as inferential statistics were employed to measure the
extent of association among study variables. Out of 480 respondents, a response rate of 82.7% was achieved. The study
cohort was dominated by females (63.0%) and majority of the participants belonged to Malay ethnicity (88.1%). One
hundred and seventy two (43.3%) never attended a health promotional campaign and mentioned lack of time and
transport as potential barriers. Among those who attended such activities, one third was satisfied with the benefits of
health campaigns. Approximately 90% of the participants demanded accessible locations, common language as mode of
communication and complete medical checkups with professional advice at health promotional campaigns. General
public can encouraged to participate in the health promotion activities by considering their priorities before designing
a health promotion program. This will help in targeting and achieving the goal “health for all”.
Despite the debates of the benefits of continuing mammography screening among elderly women, studies in Malaysia have shown that the prevalence of breast examination declines after age 45 years and for mammogram per se, the prevalence of examination increases until age of 64. This study aims to determine the prevalence of mammogram screening among elderly women in Hulu Langat, Selangor and its relationship with factors such as demographic factors, family history of breast cancer, perceived health status, perceived general psychological factor and lifestyle factors. Data used were from a cross sectional study of health status among community in Hulu Langat area by the Department of Community Health, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia carried out from the year 1998 till 2002. However this paper focused on the database involving elderly women age 60 and above. The sample population was 652. The mean (standard deviation) age was 67.17 (5.995). Only 8.3% of the elderly women claimed to ever had mammogram screening done. Hence, the prevalence of mammogram screening is still low among elderly women in Hulu Langat. Having family history of breast cancer (p < 0.001) and perceived positive psychological status (p=0.003) had shown significant associations with mammogram screening among them. It is therefore important for researcher to further look into the reasons behind this and qualitative exploration is highly recommended.
Dengue Fever is a major public health issue in Malaysia. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practice regarding dengue fever and effectiveness of health education programme among 204 students of Alam Shah Science School, Cheras/Kuala Lumpur. Study design was a cross sectional study followed by an interventional (pre-post) Study. The self-administered questionnaire included questions on sociodemographic factors, knowledge, attitude and practice regarding dengue fever. Majority of respondents were Malays (96.6%), monthly family income more than RM 3000 (64.6%) and lives in urban area (64.6%). There was no significant association between knowledge status and socio-demographic factors (p-value>0.05). Most of the respondents had good knowledge (63.2%) good attitudes (79.9%) regarding dengue fever. However, practices to prevent dengue was poor (74.0%). Only about one-fifth of the respondents (18.2%) believed that dengue fever is a flu-like illness. Knowledge score was significantly increased after health education programme (p value
Introduction: Maternal psychological well-being determines early mother-infant relationship and babys health. Paying attention on this aspect is essential particularly in early postpartum period. This study aimed to determine early psychological reactions toward socioeconomic profi les, delivery methods and delivery outcomes among postpartum mothers in Kuala Lumpur Hospital. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 two week-postpartum mothers participated in this cross sectional study and their psychological perspective was measured by using the Depressive, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). Results: 4%, 16% and 4.7% of respondents had significant depressive, anxiety and stress levels respectively. Conclusion: Socioeconomic variables such household income, level of education and presence of medical illness were statistically signifi cant to determine early postpartum psychological reactions but not the modes or outcomes of delivery.
Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide and in Malaysia. It has better cure rate if detected early. However, the practice of breast cancer screening in Malaysia is still low. The objective of this study is to determine the knowledge and its associated factors as well as sources of information on breast cancer and breast cancer screening among female staff in a public university in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in 2005 involving 394 female staff including academic and non-academic staff, which was selected by cluster sampling. A self-administered questionnaire on socioeconomic characteristics and family history of breast cancer was used for data collection. Chi-square Test and Fisher’s Exact Test was used for testing an association using SPSS 12.0. Results: The response rate was 84.3%. Only 50.9% had high knowledge on breast cancer and breast cancer screening and this was significantly associated with occupational status, monthly family income and educational level (p
Purpose of the present study was to assess effect of work-family conflict (along with its four dimensions) on physical health status. In particular, we examined the mediating role of health related behaviors on the linkage between all dimensions of work-family conflict and physical health status. The current cross-sectional research was conducted among 567 women who were working in the public departments of Malaysia. Self-administrated questionnaire was used for data collection. Our findings showed that work-family conflict (along with its four dimensions) significantly and negatively correlated with physical health status. The findings from mediational analysis showed that all dimensions of work-family conflict indirectly deteriorate physical health status via increasing the chance of not using food strategies. However, our results did not support the mediating function of physical activity on the proposed relationship. Results of the current study indicated that women with greater level of work-family conflict are more likely to suffer from poor physical health status. Having multiple strategies for managing food and eating reduce the adverse effect of work-family conflict on physical health. Organizations may benefit from Family Friendly Policies (FFP) that can alleviate level of conflict and eventually avoid or decrease rate of engagement in unhealthy behavior that have detrimental effect on health status.
Caring practice is one of the three core values of Corporate Culture of Ministry of Health Malaysia, initiated in 1991. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the extent of hospital healthcare personnel practicing the element of caring. Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to all staff working in public hospitals followed by reminder letters and telephone calls. A total of 37,267 responded out of 69,385 personnel working in the hospitals with a response rate of 53.7%. Results showed that about half of the respondents perceived that they practice caring value of the corporate culture (49.5%) and only 33.3% perceived that their colleagues practiced it. The practice of caring value was highest among clinical specialists (65.4%) and lowest among the clerks (22.1%). Nurses perceived that 40.4% of their colleagues practiced caring values while the clerks perceived only 17.0% of their colleagues practice it. In conclusion, caring value is not being well practiced by healthcare staff especially among the support staff. There is a need for further research to study the reasons for poor caring practice by healthcare personnel and develop strategies to improve the situation.
This is a cross sectional study to assess the performance of Putrajaya Health Clinic in meeting the client's expectation among 403 clients who came to seek medical treatment through a systematic random sampling in the month of July 2006. Our aim is not only to reduce dissatisfaction among clients but also try to meet their expectations; we have adopted SERVQUAL method which defined satisfaction as the difference between perceptions and expectations. We would also like to refer this dissatisfaction as not able to meet clients' expectations. It was found that there were only 6.9% of clients dissatisfied in Putrajaya Health Clinic, but they had not been able to meet 81.5% of clients' expectation. As for demographic characteristics, there appeared to be a significant association between client's satisfaction and age, gender, ethnicity and educational level. For outpatient's, the greatest dissatisfaction is in the dimension of Reliability. Clients were not happy with the waiting time at the clinic. Apart from recruiting more staff, management should develop a comfortable waiting environment to reduce the agony of waiting.
Purpose- Work ethics are practice and speed that should be practiced during working. This study was conducted to identify positive work ethics among health clinic staff who work at the counter and in the clinic
Design/methodology/approach- This study was carried out from January 2008 until December 2008. Health Clinic staff who work at the counter and in the clinic were chosen as respondents. Self- administered questionnaire was used to gain feedback on work ethic practice among staff. The questionnaire consists of evaluation questions on staff in the respondent's deoaftment
Findings- From the study, approximately B0% of staff have practiced positive work ethics, From 15 work ethics practices, there were only three that should be give attention; i.e. (i) gossiping, (ii) apathetic on reprimand and advice, and (iii) hot- tempered, Improvement strategies need to be formed especially strengthening the soft skills courses and increasing the communication skills to the counter staff, It is also wise to form a leader as a'role model' in improving effective supervisory skills in service counter. Keywords: Work Ethics, Counter Staff, Clinic Staff, Health Clinic
Patient waiting time was introduced to orthodontic clinics in 2009 as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) as a measure of client satisfaction. A cross-sectional pilot study was carried out in 2009 in all four main government orthodontic clinics in Selangor. The objectives were to measure patient actual waiting time and evaluate conformance to this KPI. The sample comprised of 5,286 patients; 9.2% from Tanjung Karang, 37.1% Kajang, 29.3% Klang and 24.4% Shah Alam. There were 33.8% punctual, 44.2% early and 21.9% late patients. The mean actual waiting time (AWT) in Selangor was 30 min (SD 24.7); shortest in Tanjung Karang (16.5min, SD 15.3) and longest in Shah Alam (47.9min, SD29.6). AWT was 21.9 min (SD 17.4) for patients punctual for appointments, 40.3 min (SD 40.3) for early patients and 21.9min (SD19.8) for late patients respectively. Although the mean AWT was long for early patients, 20% of them were seen earlier than their appointment time. All four clinics complied with the MOH KPI performance target (>50%) with a mean compliance of 87.5% for Selangor. There is statistically significant difference in punctuality of patients in different clinics (p