Background: Urinary incontinence is a common problem among older women. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of urinary incontinence among older women aged 55 years and over in the Klang valley, the most densely populated urban area in Malaysia, and to determine any potential ethnic differences.
Methods: This study used cross-sectional data from the Malaysian Elders Longitudinal Research (MELoR) study. A total of 863 participants were included, with a mean age of 67.97 ± 7.50 (S.D.). They were selected by simple random sampling from the electoral rolls of three parliamentary constituencies.
Results: The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 30.8%. Mixed urinary incontinence (UI) was present in 44.7%, stress UI in 39.1% and urge UI in 16.2%. Ethnic Malays (38%) were more likely than ethnic Indians (32.3%) and Chinese (29.7%) to have UI. Ethnic Malays were also more likely to have stress UI and Indians were more likely to have urge UI .
Conclusion: The prevalence of UI in this study was comparable to other Asian and worldwide studies. The significant association between ethnicity and UI, however, has not been reported in any previous studies. Further studies should identify factors which may determine these ethnic differences in UI.
BACKGROUND: Concepts of successful aging (SA), usual aging (UA), and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have been developed to identify older adults at high risk of Alzheimer's diseases (AD), however, the predictors have rarely been investigated in a single study. Thus, this study aims to explore the risk factors of MCI as compared to UA and SA among older adults, in a large community based cohort study in Malaysia.
METHOD: 1993 subjects from four states in Malaysia were recruited. A comprehensive interview-based questionnaire was administered to determine socio-demographic information, followed by assessments to evaluate cognitive function, functional status, dietary intake, lifestyle and psychosocial status. Risk factors of cognitive impairment were assessed using the ordinal logistic regression (OLR).
RESULT: The prevalence of SA, UA and MCI in this study was 11, 73 and 16 % respectively. OLR indicated that higher fasting blood sugar, hyperlipidemia, disability, lower education level, not regularly involved in technical based activities, limited use of modern technologies, lower intake of fruits and fresh fruit juices and not practicing calorie restriction were among the risk factors of poor cognitive performance in this study.
CONCLUSION: This study will be a stepping stone for future researchers to develop intervention strategies to prevent cognitive decline.
AIM: To determine the pattern of utilization of emergency department (ED) services by older patients in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, compared with younger patients in the same setting.
METHODS: The sociodemographics, clinical characteristics and resource utilization of consecutive patients attending the adult ED at the University Malaya Medical Center were recorded during a typical week.
RESULTS: A total of 1649 patients were included in the study; 422/1649 (25.6%) were aged ≥60 years and 1077 (74.4%) were aged <60 years. Older adult patients were more likely to be diagnosed with ischemic heart disease (12.6% vs 2.5%, P