Awareness, involvement and training in dysphagia management are essential to ensure that patients are appropriately
assessed for dysphagia and provided with intervention. The study aimed to identify levels of awareness, involvement and
training of medical officers in dysphagia management. A total of 51 medical officers from the family medicine, medical,
otorhinolaryngology, surgery, and neurosurgery departments in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia participated in the
study. Levels of awareness, involvement and training of medical officers in dysphagia management were reported using
descriptive analysis. Results indicate that medical officers lacked awareness and training in dysphagia management.
Referral rates to speech-language pathologists for dysphagia management were low with 58.4% of medical officers having
had seldom or never referred patients. The results provide valuable information for addressing dysphagia management
in the hospital.
Objectives: The aim of this study is to validate the Malay version of the Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) for the purpose of the future study related to aggression. Furthermore, the study seeks to identify types of aggression hold by the female inmates.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed involving 90 Malaysian female prisoners. The analyses include descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability testing. After one-week interval, a test-retest was conducted.
Results: The preliminary analysis confirmed that factor analysis was appropriate for the Malay-translated version of the AQ. The four factors structure was assessed but the factor loadings are remarkable different from the original versions. The total Cronbach's alpha coefficients is very high (α= 0.91). The Pearson's correlation however is low (r = 0.48) but acceptable for the instrument. Reliability of the subscales and the factors were also found satisfactory. Consequently, anger and hostility were identified as the most common types of aggression among the participants, followed by verbal aggression. In contrast, physical aggression was the least scored type of aggression.
Conclusion: The Malay-translated version of the AQ was found to be valid and reliable to be used in future studies.
Objective: This study aims to establish the validity and reliability of the Malay- translated version of the CES-D. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional study design. The participants were female inmates (n=90) from local prisons which were selected based on purposive-selective sampling. The analyses include face validation, factor analysis, and reliability testing. A test-retest was conducted within a one-week interval. Results: The mean score for depression among the participants is 18.97 (SD=6.51). Further descriptive analysis showed that 58.9% of them scored above the mean score, which is considered high. Preliminary construct validation analysis confirmed that factor analysis was appropriate for the Malay-translated version of the CES-D. Furthermore, the factor analysis showed similar factor loadings to the original English version. The total internal consistency of the translated version, which was measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, was equal to 0.75. The test-retest reliability of the total score, measured by Pearson’s correlation was equal to 0.69. Conclusions: Face validity, construct validity, and reliability analysis were found satisfactory for the Malay-translated version of the CES-D. The Malay-translated version of the CES-D was found valid and reliable to be used in future studies, with comparable properties to the original version and to previous studies. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 15 (1): January - June 2014: 54-65.
Dysphagia is a significant health issue and it gives a substantial impact on the individual’s quality of life. This study aims to explore the quality of life of patients with dysphagia in head and neck cancer population. Twenty patients with dysphagia who were attending to oncology clinic in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia for their medical treatment on the head and neck cancer involved in the study. The Swallowing Activity and Participation Profile (SAPP) was used to gather information on the patients’ swallowing ability and psychosocial domains (personal, social and working, and emotional). The results indicated that the swallowing ability was significantly related to the personal, social and working, and emotional domains. The Mann-Whitney test showed no statistically significant difference in the personal domain and in the social and working domain of men and women. Yet the result revealed a statistically significant difference in the emotional domain of men (M = 10.42) and women (M = 14.63). On the whole, this study positively conform that the quality of life of patients with dysphagia among head and neck cancer population was truly affected.
To investigate the anxiety among mothers whom their babies have failed test results in the first stage of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program.