METHOD: A convenience sample of 102 patients was recruited from four Cure and Care Service Centres in Malaysia.
RESULTS: Principal component analysis with varimax rotation supported two-factor solutions for each subscale: problem recognition, desire for help and treatment readiness, which accounted for 63.5%, 62.7% and 49.1% of the variances, respectively. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were acceptable for the overall measures (24 items: ∝ = 0.89), the problem recognition scale (10 items; ∝ = 0.89), desire for help (6 items; ∝ = 0.64) and treatment readiness scale (8 items; ∝ = 0.60). The results also indicated significant motivational differences for different modalities, with inpatients having significantly higher motivational scores in each scale compared to outpatients.
CONCLUSION: The present study pointed towards the favourable psychometric properties of a motivation for treatment scale, which can be a useful instrument for clinical applications of drug use changes and treatment.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective cross-sectional study on the data obtained from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (Hospital USM) from Jun 2018 until May 2019. Blood samples were taken via a single prick from venous blood and sent separately using 1ml heparinised syringe and were analysed immediately in ED using BGA (Radiometer, ABL800 FLEX, Denmark) and another sample was sent to the central laboratory of Hospital USM and analysed by BCA (Architect, C8000, USA). Only patients who had potassium levels ≥5.0mmol/L on blood gas results were included. A total of 173 sample pairs were included. The correlation and agreement were evaluated using Passing and Bablok regression, Linear Regression and Bland-Altman test.
RESULT: Of the 173 sample pairs, the median of potassium level based on BGA and BCA were 5.50mmol/L (IQR: 1.00) and 5.90mmol/L (IQR: 0.95) respectively. There was significant correlation between two measurements (p<0.001, r: 0.36). The agreement between the two measurements showed within acceptable mean difference which was 0.27 mmol/L with 95% limit of agreement were 1.21mmol/L to 1.73mmol/L.
CONCLUSION: The result of blood gas can be used as a guide for initial treatment of hyperkalaemia in critical cases where time is of the essence. However, BCA result is still the definitive value.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study involved 340 caregivers of chronic kidney patients undergoing hemodialysis. The setting was in Terengganu, Malaysia. The caregivers completed the measures of caregiving burden, quality of life, social support, and symptoms of anxiety and depression.
RESULTS: About 28.8% and 52.4% of caregivers showed clinically moderate levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. Furthermore, 35.9% and 3.8% of them showed clinically high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively. Analyses showed that general quality of life was a significant predictor of both anxiety and depressive symptoms. Burden and psychological domains of quality of life significantly predicted anxiety. In addition, a lack of social support was a determinant of depressive symptoms. Evidence suggested that social support moderated the burden-anxiety relationship. Specifically, caregivers with low levels of social support showed more elevated levels of anxiety symptoms when their burden was higher.
CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need for early detection to initiate prompt treatment in this population. The study provides some important insights into offering comprehensive intervention to help caregivers cope more effectively through the provision of sufficient social support to buffer the effects of caregiving burden and improve mental health.