Objective: Self-esteem is an important component of psychological health. In Malaysia, Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale remained the single most popular utilized scale for studying global self-esteem. This study aims to design a language, culture and illness specific self-esteem questionnaire. Methods: The study consisted of 2 phases. The first phase was to generate items for the new self-esteem questionnaire (SSES) in Bahasa Malaysia. Literature review on the concept of selfesteem and its’ content was conducted. This was followed by expert opinion from professional care-givers. The items were qualitatively validated by healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia from the same locality, culture and language. The second phase consists of quantitative validation of the items. Items in the new scale were analyzed based on the responses from 165 stable schizophrenia outpatients. The validated Malay version of Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale (RSES) was used concurrently as a comparison. Results: The SSES displayed good internal consistency for its two domains
(Cronbach’s alpha=0.88, 0.81) and test-retest reliability (ICC), ranged from 0.44 to 0.87. Its construct validity was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The concurrent validity of SSES and RSES using Pearson correlation was 0.77. The Cronbach’s alpha for the validated Malay version of RSES is 0.67. Conclusion: This study presents a new self-esteem questionnaire (SSES) which has high concurrent validity with the standard RSES and confirms the reliability and validity of SSES in Malay patients with Schizophrenia.
Study site: Psychiatric clinic, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Kelantan and Hospital Kota Bharu, (HKB), Kelantan
Objective: The present study aims to assess verbal memory performance in patients with schizophrenia attending HUSM and determine the relationship between the patients’ verbal memory performance and their demographic/clinical factors. Methods: A cross sectional study of 114 patients with schizophrenia attending HUSM psychiatric services from December 2007 to May 2008 was conducted. The schizophrenia symptoms as well as verbal memory performance were assessed using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Malay version of the Calgary Depression Scale (MVCDS), and the Malay version of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (MVAVLT). The relationship between verbal memory performance and demographic/clinical symptoms was evaluated using Pearson Correlation. Results: Overall MVAVLT scores in all the trials were lowered in patients with schizophrenia compared to average healthy controls. There were significant relationships between occupational status and MVAVLT performance in Trial A1-A5 Total; between educational level and MVAVLT performance in Trial A1 and Trial A1-A5 Total and between severities of illness and MVAVLT performance in all indexes except Trial A1 after controlled for occupation and
educational level. Conclusions: Patient with schizophrenia in HUSM performed significantly worse than healthy controls in verbal memory with or without interference. There were significant relationships between MVAVLT performance and patient’s occupational s tatus, educational level and severity of the illness but not depressive symptoms.
Study site: Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM)
Introduction: Geriatric Giants are the impairment that appear in older people. It comprises of impaired cognition,
urinary incontinence, instability, fall and immobility. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of Geriatric Giants among older people living in three different living environment; own home, pondok and old folks home.
Methods: This comparative study involved 471 respondents from Kelantan. There were 157 participants each from
own home, pondok and old folks home. The prevalence of Geriatric Giants were determine by 10 minutes comprehensive screening which was developed to diagnose and manage the Geriatric Giants (WHO, 2007) and prevalence
were compared using chi-square tests or Fisher exact test. Results: Prevalence of dementia among respondents of old
folks home (11.5%), pondok (6.4%) and own home (0.6%). Prevalence of urinary incontinence among respondents
of own home (22.3%), old folks home (16.6%) and pondok (14.0%). Prevalence of instability among respondents of
old folk home (31.2%), pondok (27.4%) and own home (14.0%). Prevalence of fall among respondents of pondok
(33.1%), old folks home (24.25) and own home (19.7%). Old folk home respondents had the highest prevalence of
moderate and severe immobility There were significant difference in prevalence of dementia ((Fisher exact p value