METHODS: A systematic review of published and unpublished studies were carried out. Included studies described the development of explicit criteria for PIM use in older adults and provided a list of medications that should be considered inappropriate. PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus searches were conducted. The PIMs were analyzed according to the general conditions, disease-specific conditions, and drug-drug interaction classes. The qualities of the included studies were assessed using a nine-point evaluation tool. The kappa agreement index was used to evaluate the level of agreement between the identified explicit PIM tools.
RESULTS: The search yielded 1206 articles, and 15 studies were included in our analysis. Thirteen criteria were identified in East Asia and two in South Asia. Twelve out of the 15 criteria were developed using the Delphi method. We identified 283 PIMs independent of medical conditions and 465 disease-specific PIMs. Antipsychotics were included in most of the criteria (14/15), followed by tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) (13/15), antihistamines (13/15), sulfonylureas (12/15), benzodiazepines (11/15), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) (11/15). Only one study fulfilled all the quality components. There was a low kappa agreement (k = 0.230) between the included studies.
CONCLUSION: This review included 15 explicit PIM criteria, which most listed antipsychotics, antidepressants, and antihistamines as potentially inappropriate. Healthcare professionals should exercise more caution when dealing with these medications among older patients. These results may help healthcare professionals in Asian nations to create regional standards for the discontinuation of potentially harmful drugs for elderly patients.
Background: In Malaysia, blood procurement relies mainly on voluntary non-remunerated donors. Hence, it is important to ensure the satisfaction of the blood donors in order to increase retention.
Methods: This study was conducted among blood donors who attended blood donation and understood the Malay language. Non-Malaysian and illiterate donors were excluded. The questionnaire was developed by the transfusion medicine team. Content validity was established by content reviewers, while face validity was examined in the cognitive debriefing stage. For the 18-item questionnaire, 90 respondents were required based on the 1:5 ratio. A retest was performed in two weeks' time.
Results: One hundred and thirty-seven participants responded in the first phase, while 103 responded after two weeks. The five domains were: technical, interpersonal, accessibility/ convenience, physical experience and overall satisfaction. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was 0.896, with significant Bartlett's Test of Sphericity (P < 0.001). The factor loadings ranged from 0.729 to 0.953. The Cronbach alpha values of the five domains ranged from 0.814 to 0.955 and the intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.663 to 0.847.
Conclusion: The Malaysian blood donor's satisfaction (M-BDS) questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool suitable for the assessment of blood donor's satisfaction in blood donation centres.
METHODS: Nine hundred and fifty-three pharmacists in the public service of Perak State, Malaysia, were invited for participation in an online survey that was conducted in October 2018. Based on a 5-point Likert scale, they were required to respond to 56 items, ranging from the perceived availability and importance of both motivators and training supports, the challenges to career advancement, to the awareness of the need for career planning. Their responses were subsequently dichotomized into 'agree'/'important' and 'disagree'/'not important'.
KEY FINDINGS: Four hundred and eighty pharmacists participated in the survey, yielding a response rate of 51.2%. More than half of them agreed with the inflexibility of working time and the absence of a performance-based salary and promotion scheme. More than 80% of them also highly valued the training in both pharmacy-related areas and management. Apart from inadequate training, no specialization in pharmacy as a profession and the absence of a performance-based promotion scheme were identified as the major challenges to their career advancement. As compared with the PRPs, the FRPs had greater concern over the absence of a performance-based salary and promotion scheme, flexible working time and periodic feedback for their work performance.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate the inadequacy of the current system in providing recognition, training, feedback for work performance and a clear career pathway to pharmacists in the Malaysian public service, which warrants a change.
RESULTS: Of the 141 participants, most were mothers (90.8%) and had a full-time job (55.3%). Most of them had adequate medication-related knowledge (71.6%) and an appropriate administration practice (83.0%). The majority of them (83.0%) also rated themselves as adherent to medication administration. The participants with a child above 5 years of age (91.2%) were found to have a better practice than those with younger children (75.3%) in medication administration (p = 0.012). However, those with a child taking two (adjusted OR: 12.53) or three (adjusted OR: 8.29) medications, getting their refills from private health institutions apart from this hospital (adjusted OR = 7.06) and having multiple illnesses (adjusted OR = 21.25) were more likely to be not adherent to medication administration.
CONCLUSION: Caregivers of chronically ill children in Malaysia generally have sufficient knowledge and an appropriate practice of medication administration at home. Yet, strategies to improve the adherence to medication administration, particularly in those who care for children with complicated health conditions, are warranted.
METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted between April to June 2020 in Malaysia. Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 for at least 1 month and their family members who were tested with negative results, Malaysian and aged 18-65 years old were purposively sampled. Cold call method was employed to recruit patients while their family members were recruited by their recommendations. Telephone interviews were conducted with the participants after obtaining their verbal consent.
RESULTS: A total of 18 participants took part in this study. Three themes emerged from the interviews: (Ι) experience of stigmatization, (ΙΙ) perspective on disease disclosure, and (ΙΙΙ) suggestion on coping and reducing stigma. The participants expressed their experiences of being isolated, labelled, and blamed by the people surrounding them including the health care providers, neighbours, and staff at the service counters. Some respondents expressed their willingness to share their experience with others by emphasizing the importance of taking preventive measure in order to stop the chain of virus transmission and some of them chose to disclose this medical history for official purpose because of fear and lack of understanding among the public. As suggested by the respondents, the approaches in addressing social stigma require the involvement of the government, the public, health care provider, and religious leader.
CONCLUSION: Individuals recovered from COVID-19 and their families experienced social stigma. Fear and lack of public understanding of the COVID-19 disease were the key factors for non-disclosure. Some expressed their willingness to share their experience as they perceived it as method to increase public awareness and thereby reducing social stigma. Multifaceted approaches with the involvement of multiple parties including the government, non-governmental organization as well as the general public were recommended as important measures to address the issues of social stigma.
METHODS: This was an experimental study conducted at five hospitals and 20 primary health care clinics in the state of Perak. Adults over 18 years of age were recruited using sequential sampling. The first phase of data collection consisted of a pre-intervention assessment, an educational session, and an immediate post-intervention assessment. Each educational session was conducted by trained pharmacists and lasted approximately 15 min for each participant. A two-week post-intervention assessment was then conducted via a phone call to re-assess the participants using the same questionnaire.
RESULTS: Out of 300 questionnaires distributed, 234 were completed for our study. The mean age of participants was 40.7 ± 14.6 years old. Most of the respondents were female (143, 61.1%), Malay (162, 69.2%), and had tertiary education (162, 69.2%). A mean score was generated for each domain, with knowledge towards antibiotic resistance: 2.83 ± 1.28 pre-intervention, 3.76 ± 0.62 immediate post-intervention, and 3.67 ± 0.78 two-weeks post-intervention (total score: 4.00); knowledge towards antibiotic use: 2.03 ± 1.56 pre-intervention, 4.56 ± 1.46 immediate post-intervention, and 4.32 ± 1.48 two-weeks post-intervention (total score: 6.00); perception towards antibiotic use: 2.83 ± 1.38 pre-intervention, 4.25 ± 1.06 immediate post-intervention, and 4.22 ± 1.02 two-weeks post-intervention (total score: 5.00). Significant improvement in the mean scores were found before and after intervention in all domains (p
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Kelantan state of Malaysia. The questionnaire comprised 39 questions that covered areas such as donors' social demographic information, knowledge of transfusion-transmitted diseases, blood screening and donor eligibility and perceptions towards blood safety. The knowledge score was categorised as good or poor.
Results: Of the 450 distributed questionnaires, 389 were suitable for analysis. Only 18.5% of the donors had good knowledge, with 81.5% having poor knowledge. Less than 30% were aware that people with multiple sexual partners, bisexual people and male homosexual people are permanently deferred from blood donation. Only 29.4% agreed that donors are responsible if their blood causes infection. Furthermore, 39.3% assumed that they could check their HIV status through blood donation, and 10.3% and 5.4% of the respondents believed that donors are free from infection if they wear a condom during sex or only have oral sex when involved in prostitution, respectively.
Conclusion: Poor knowledge and notable misperceptions concerning safe blood donation were found among blood donors. The Ministry of Health should incorporate safe blood education in future public awareness programmes.
METHODS: This was a quasi-experimental study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital. Healthy post-delivery Malaysian mothers were randomly selected and enrolled into the control or the intervention group. On the day of discharge, mothers in the intervention group were interviewed face-to-face in the post-natal ward on their plans for sleeping arrangement with their newborn. After the interview, mothers were advised not to bed share with their newborn and were given an educational leaflet on safe sleeping practices. One week after discharge, mothers in both groups were interviewed over the telephone regarding their actual sleeping arrangements with their newborn using the same questionnaire. Logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with reduced bed sharing.
RESULTS: A total of 94 mothers and 95 mothers were recruited to the control and intervention group, respectively. The baseline bed-sharing prevalence was similar between groups: 60.6% in the control group and 61.1% in the interventional group. The proportion of mothers who bed shared with their newborn reduced from 61.1 to 37.9% after the intervention (P changed their sleeping practices after receiving the intervention in the form of an information leaflet.